Apple engineers may quit if forced to comply to FBI orders: Report

There’s a new twist in the Apple-FBI fight with a NYT report claiming that Apple engineers may rather quit than complying to FBI orders over iPhone encryption. The report states that even if the company loses the court fight and employees are forced to follow FBI orders for breaking down the iPhone, they may choose to simply stop working or even give off their high paying jobs altogether. According to the report, that claims to have spoken to dozens of Apple employees, internal discussions are revolving around taking the said steps. The employees interviewed are said to be current or former employees related to Apple’s mobile products and security team. This could mean, if FBI wins the case, Apple may be forced to crackdown the iPhone. “If enough of the company’s employees participate in the action (mentioned above), it could make the FBI’s goal nearly impossible to achieve,” points out TheVerge. Apple’s big standoff with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone belonging to a terrorist has been hitting headlines for sometime now. For those living under the rock, Apple chief Tim Cook has refused a court order that wants the company to break into the iPhone owned by San Bernardino shooter, Syed Farook. Farook, along with his wife Tashfeen Malik, were responsible for killing 14 people on December 2 last year. So, doesn’t Apple want to help nab a terrorist by opening a ‘single’ requested iPhone? Well, it does want to help, but opening one unit means creating a backdoor for future requests that may follow and eventually compromising on user privacy, believes Tim Cook. “They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone. Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation,” Cook had written in a letter.