Former NSA counsel: Apple is ‘arrogant’

Former National Security Agency general counsel Stewart Baker on Monday called Apple “arrogant” in his analysis of the company’s ongoing legal feud with the FBI over the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, according to The Guardian. 

{mosads}He argued encryption is “the single most oversold technology in the public sphere,” during a panel at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas.

Citing the famous quote by Hollywood musician and actor Oscar Levant regarding 1940s starlet Doris Day — “I remember her before she was a virgin” — Baker accused Apple of changing its policy on encrypted data only recently.

“Who remembers Tim Cook before he was a virgin? Look at his record in China,” Baker said. “When China asked, [Apple] didn’t even tell us they were doing it. Other countries are going to request access, and companies are going to give it to them once they demonstrate that they really need it.”

Apple says it has never been asked to do by any government what the U.S. government is ordering it to do now. Apple lawyer Ted Olson called accusations by the Department of Justice that the company has provided assistance to Chinese authorities “false and baseless” in an interview with CNBC on Monday. 

The tech giant is currently opposing a court order demanding that it help the FBI unlock the iPhone 5c of accused San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.

While the government is insisting that the contents of the phone are vital to its investigation into the December attack that killed 14, Apple insists that the aid the FBI is requesting would damage the privacy and security of millions of its devices.

Specifically, the agency wants Apple to build a piece of software that would disable a key security feature on the phone, allowing it to hack into the device. The company has been deliberately strengthening its encryption with each new product, and in newer models, Apple itself cannot access users’ communications to provide to officials who have a warrant.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has characterized the edit as “the software equivalent of cancer,” something it considers too dangerous to create.

“We have put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business,” he wrote in an open letter explaining the company’s position.

The FBI has argued that the access it is seeking is unique to Farook’s phone — and more broadly, that “warrant-proof” encryption is a public danger because it allows criminals to communicate out of the grasp of law enforcement. It has cast its demands as a reasonable part of a terrorism investigation.

Baker lampooned Apple for its arguments that privacy concerns trump the needs of investigators.

“If Apple is assuming the benefits of the privacy it is selling, how about it takes on some of the costs of crime? How about letting victims of crimes that have not been solved because of encryption sue Apple for damages?” he said.

Baker is now a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

—This post was updated at 4:42 p.m.