Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a memo to his staff Sunday arguing that a government “commission or other panel of experts” is needed to mediate what has become a pitched battle between the tech giant and the FBI. At issue is whether the federal government can compel Apple to create software that would allow the encryption on a dead terrorist’s iPhone to be broken.
Along with the memo, Cook posted a new FAQ in which he acknowledged that it’s possible to comply with the FBI’s request. Doing so would involve creating a new operating system that would allow the FBI to rapidly guess passwords and thus read the content stored on an iPhone left behind by Syed Rizwan Farook.
Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people in a December shooting rampage at a county facility in San Bernardino, California, was later killed in a gun battle with police.
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