Apple's lawyer and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation director have presented their cases before a congressional panel. This is after Apple has vehemently denied the request of a court to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters citing privacy concerns.
In a report by Irish Times, the presentation and the face-off between the two representatives took place on Tuesday. Thursday last week, Apple has filed a motion to vacate the court order as the tech giant's CEO, Tim Cook, maintained his stance noting he is willing to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Apple's representative, Bruce Sewell, have reportedly argued that creating a tool, which will be unlocking the phone without deleting data after ten erroneous guesses regarding the phone's passcode, will result to the weakening of the privacy and security of hundreds of millions of Apple devices. He added that "hackers and cyber criminals could use this" in order to spread chaos to Apple users.
Also last week, FBI director James Comey pointed out that their request, if granted, will not be a "trailblazer" that could set a legal precedent to other cases such as the San Bernardino shooting. Comey added before the congressional panel hearing the case that the phone, if opened, could have locator services so as to fill the gap regarding the hours and weeks that led to the shooting last December 2, which killed 14 and injured 22.
Comey told the panel that they have looked at "every gas station camera, every intersection camera, we have the whole route" but they are missing 19 minutes before the shooters, couple Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, were killed by law enforcement officials, Reuters reported.
United State Attorney General Loretta Lynch also commented on Tuesday that she was disappointed with the Brooklyn ruling. Just recently, a federal judge has sided with Apple in another case in Brooklyn regarding law enforcement officials having legal authority to order Apple in sidabling the security of an iPhone. That iPhone was seized during a drug investigation, Fortune reported.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has also testified to support the FBI saying that the default device encryption harms criminal prosecutions.
It is unclear, however, when the comments from the congressional panel will be released.
