Apple CEO Tim Cook has been a high-profile champion of encryption - now his company is embroiled in what could be a defining case in the battle over privacy vs. national security.
In a letter published on the company website Tuesday night, Cook said Apple is opposing a magistrate court judge's Tuesday order to help the government hack into the encrypted iPhone of Syed Farook, one of the killers in a December attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 people.
Farook’s phone reportedly was running the newest version of Apple’s iOS, which can’t be unlocked without a passcode.
Now the FBI wants Apple to provide it with software that will keep the agency from getting locked out of Farook’s iPhone if it enters the wrong passcode too many times.
Cook says in the letter that Apple is fighting “what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government,” but he also makes sure to include: “We have no sympathy for terrorists.”