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Google CEO backs Apple in FBI fight over cracking San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone
Google head sides with rival Apple in its battle with a judge who ordered it to help the FBI access information on the encrypted iPhone.
Pieces of an iPhone are seen on a repair store in New York, Feb. 17, 2016. REUTERS
By
Alex Johnson
Google’s chief executive sided with rival Apple on Wednesday in its battle with a judge who ordered it to help the FBI access information on the encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
Sundar Pichai, head of the search titan, directed followers to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook’s open letter Tuesday night arguing that helping the FBI try to get into the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook would sabotage the security of “tens of millions of American citizens.”
Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, gunned down 14 people at a social services agency Dec. 2 in San Bernardino, California, before dying in a shootout with police. FBI Director James Comey said last week that investigators still haven’t been able to get at the information on Farook’s iPhone 5c.
Not even Apple can decrypt an encrypted iPhone, according to the company. One of the major security advantages of Apple’s encryption is that the key needed to unlock the protected data is fused into the phone — and only on the phone, meaning not even Apple knows what it is.
What investigators are trying to do is figure out the Farook’s password — but they fear that his phone has a common feature that wipes the data completely after a certain number of failed password entries. The judge’s order directs Apple to disable that feature, which would allow the FBI to try potentially millions of computer-generated passwords in hope of finding the right one.
In a series of tweets Wednesday evening, Pichai argued that even that would essentially put tech companies in the position of hacking their own customers:
1/5 Important post by @tim_cook. Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy
— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) February 17, 2016
