FBI's 'Stunning Overreach' in Apple Encryption Case Harms Citizens, Security, Eshoo Says

The FBI is making a "stunning overreach" in its court battle with Apple over demands that the company "create a new operating system with a 'swinging door' that the federal government can enter and exit without any rules whatsoever, whenever they wish," House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said in a statement Friday. If Apple complies with the court order to unlock an iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters (see 1602250056), "it would in essence be ordered to also unlock a world where our personal information is vulnerable to attacks by terrorist organizations, rogue nations and others seeking to cause the U.S. harm and instill fear," Eshoo added. Not only would back doors endanger the country and provide a way for hackers and others to exploit, she said, the American public's trust in the government already has been "severely diminished" through its past spying actions. Congress is considering forming a commission to study the encryption issue (see 1602240056).