The FBI’s legal battle with the maker of iPhones is an escalation of a long-simmering conflict about encryption and security
“WE FEEL we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the US government.” With those words Tim Cook, head of Apple, the world’s biggest information-technology (IT) company, explained on February 16th why he felt his firm should refuse to comply with an FBI request to break into an iPhone used by Syed Farook, a dead terrorist. Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, who were sympathisers with Islamic State, shot and killed 14 people in California in December, before both were themselves killed by police. The FBI’s request, Mr Cook said, was “chilling”.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Taking a bite at the Apple”
From the February 27th 2016 edition
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