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Apple Encryption Engineers, if Ordered to Unlock iPhone, Might Resist

Apple Encryption Engineers, if Ordered to Unlock iPhone, Might Resist

By John Markoff, Katie Benner and Brian X. Chen, The New York Times | Updated: 18 March 2016 10:02 IST

If the FBI wins its court fight to force Apple's help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple's engineers.

Apple employees are discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.

Among those interviewed were Apple engineers who are involved in the development of mobile products and security, as well as former security engineers and executives.

The potential resistance adds a wrinkle to a very public fight between Apple, the world's most valuable company, and the authorities over access to an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the December mass killing in San Bernardino, California.

(Also see: Apple Digs in for Long Fight)

It also speaks directly to arguments Apple has made in legal documents that the government's demand curbs free speech by asking the company to order people to do things that they consider offensive.

"Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple's core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers," Apple's lawyers wrote in the company's final brief to the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The employees' concerns also provide insight into a company culture that despite the trappings of Silicon Valley wealth still views the world through the decades-old, anti-establishment prism of co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

(Also see: Husband of San Bernardino Attack Victim Takes Apple's Side)

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, last month telegraphed what his employees might do in an email to customers: "The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe," Cook wrote.

Apple declined to comment.

Apple said in court filings last month that it would take six to 10 engineers up to a month to meet the government's demands. However, because Apple is so compartmentalized, the challenge of building what the company described as "GovtOS" would be substantially complicated if key employees refused to do the work.

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