Apple CEO Tim Cook said government asked them to make software 'equivalent of cancer'

In an interview with  ABC News, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the US government asked the company to create a “software equivalent of cancer” to help investigators unlock a terrorist’s iPhone, used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. In conversation with “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, Cook also said that, “This is not about one phone. This case is about the future. Can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world?” Earlier, this week, the CEO had sent out an email to employees as well stating that the US government should withdraw its demand that Apple help the FBI hack a locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attack. The US Justice Department was also looking at court orders forcing Apple to help investigators extract data from iPhones in about a dozen undisclosed cases across the country. This move comes on the heels of the San Bernardino, California, shooting case. The county-owned iPhone was used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party in San Bernardino in December. The other phones, which were seized in a variety of criminal investigations, are involved in cases where prosecutors are compelling the company to help them bypass the pass code security feature of phones that may hold evidence. The FBI had attempted to crack the pass code but failed as Apple systems are designed in a way that automatically erases the access key and renders the phone “permanently inaccessible” after 10 failed attempts, pointed out the report. The CEO stated during the interview that, “If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write – maybe it’s an operating system for surveillance, maybe the ability for the law enforcement to turn on the camera. I don’t know where this stops. But I do know that this is not what should be happening in this country.” Cook will also be speaking with US President Barack Obama regarding the issue, and will be willing to fight with the government’s order right till the Supreme Court. he says, “Our job is to protect our customers.”