Apple boss Tim Cook has re-iterated his company’s refusal to produce a key to break the encryption on its iPhone so that the FBI can access the phone of a terrorism suspect.
Cook wrote an letter to employees on Monday morning, repeating his message that to unlock one phone mean creating something far more dangerous.
"As individuals and as a company, we have no tolerance or sympathy for terrorists," Mr Cook wrote.
"When they commit unspeakable acts like the tragic attacks in San Bernardino, we work to help the authorities pursue justice for the victims. And that's exactly what we did."
“This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation, so when we received the government’s order we knew we had to speak out,” he added.
On Sunday night FBI director James Comey wrote an open letter calling on the software giant to cooperate with the government’s request.
The FBI are seeking access to the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist attack suspect Syed Farook. An iPhone will destroy the information contained within it when a password is entered incorrectly 10 times. Apple have said that to create a key to the iPhone encryption is unacceptable as it would then be available for all phones, potentially giving access to all iPhones around to hackers and government agencies.
“At stake is the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding people and setting a dangerous precedent that threatens everyone’s civil liberties,” Mr Cook said.
“The San Bernardino litigation isn't about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice,” Comey said.
“We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist's passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That's it. We don't want to break anyone's encryption or set a master key loose on the land,” he added.
A federal court in California granted the justice department the order to access the phone and Apple have until Friday to formally protest it.
