WozniakApple co-founder Steve Wozniak has backed Apple in its fight with the FBI over the agency's request that it unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooter investigation.

Wozniak appeared yesterday on late-night TBS talk show Conan to share his thoughts on the high-profile case, asserting that the FBI had "picked the lamest case they ever could: the two phones owned by the people who aren't even convicted terrorists and have not one link to a terrorist organization."

Verizon turned over all the phone records and SMS messages. So they want to take this other phone that the two didn't destroy - which was a work phone - and it's so lame and worthless to expect there's something on it and to try and force Apple to expose it.

The FBI has asked Apple to create a version of iOS that would both disable passcode security features and allow passcodes to be entered electronically, allowing it to then brute force the passcode on the device. Wozniak explained the inherent danger of the agency's request by recollecting his early coding days.

A couple of times in my life, I tried writing something like a virus that could spread itself between Macintosh computers. And each time I threw away every bit of code I'd written. I was so scared inside, because you do not want to let something like that out. Once you create something like that, there's a good chance hackers will get into it.

Wozniak's views are relatively unsurprising given his work for the San Fransisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that Wozniak co-founded and which aims to protect individual rights in matters of technology. You can watch his comments on the case in full in the video below.


Apple's opposition to the order that would require it to help the FBI break into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone will face off against the government in court on March 22.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Top Rated Comments

simonmet Avatar
101 months ago
Woz is like Papa Smurf of Apple!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ferc Kast Avatar
101 months ago
Wait. They already have the phone records and messages? Then, why in the world do they do they "need" Apple to break their own encryption for this phone? Smh.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tentales Avatar
101 months ago
You tell'em Woz!


Unfortunately, no one at the FBI is listening to reason.
They want what they want, whatever it takes.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
whirldy Avatar
101 months ago
Yes! The FBI seems like the proverbial bratty child having a complete fit ("don't you know who I am?!") that they want something before they leave Toys 'R Us. :eek:
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnysods Avatar
101 months ago
He makes a great point. If America gets the back door, so does every government that Apple sells products in. No one is safe.

I have this awful feeling that this will go through, and this is how some crazy one world government conspiracy weirdness thing will go through where the government can watch their people and monitor their chatter because of this back door. Just hypothesizing. It's like watching the start of a movie or novel.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
shareef777 Avatar
101 months ago
Wait. They already have the phone records and messages? Then, why in the world do they do they "need" Apple to break their own encryption for this phone? Smh.
Because apparently they think life is a sitcom and the terrorists planned their entire attack in notes, the assumption is that they even included little sketches depicting their map route (yes, with stick figure men representing themselves and their victims). It even states why terrorism exists, how to solve it, and the meaning of life to boot!

The amount of effort the government applies against tracking and violating the rights of its own citizens instead of, you know, the actual terrorists is disgusting.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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