Apple, as a company, might eventually be forced by the court to help FBI crack open the iPhone that once belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. But Apple employees are another matter.
According to a new report by The New York Times, based on input from more than six current and former Apple employees, the engineers who worked on tightening iPhone encryption might quit the company if forced to create a backdoor in the phone's software.
The FBI is essentially looking for Apple to create a new variant of its iOS smartphone platform, one that could be installed to the iPhone in the government's possession and make it easier for the agency to crack open its contents. To do that, Apple would need to assemble a team of six to 10 engineers, experts who have worked on the same security features the FBI now wants them to undermine. But if some of them choose to leave the company, it would make it much harder for Apple to fulfill the FBI's request.
Losing a job at Apple would definitely not be the end of the world for these top experts in their fields. And even if they don't really quit, they could simply do a poor job, take extended leaves of absence or slow the process down in other ways.
Apple and its key people previously hinted that this might be an issue.
"The government disagrees with Apple's position and asks this Court to compel Apple to write new code that reflects its own viewpoint--a viewpoint that is deeply offensive to Apple," wrote Apple in a court filing Tuesday. "Such conscription (...) would 'pose a severe threat to the autonomy' of Apple and its engineers."
In some ways, the issue goes back to the early days of Apple: Company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were both known for their anti-establishment views.
VC Jean-Louis Gassée, once an engineering manager at Apple, told the NYT that Apple's culture is an "independent" and "rebellious."
“If the government tries to compel testimony or action from these engineers, good luck with that,” he said.
Of course, if the court deemed Apple is slowing the process down on purpose, it's not without options -- it could, for example, impose large fines on the company until it complies. But the prospect of key security experts quitting or stalling the creation of a backdoor to iPhone's security is another thing to consider in this ongoing legal battle.
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