Enlarge / Apple argues that it would take an unreasonable amount of effort to code “Government OS” for the feds. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)
Apple’s official legal response to the ongoing encryption dustup between it and the US government was released earlier today, and in it Apple makes many of the same arguments it has made since CEO Tim Cook posted his first letter to customers on the matter last week. But it goes into greater detail on several points, and it includes a section on the specific resources Apple would need to devote to writing the so-called “Government OS” update that would allow investigators to unlock the iPhone 5C in the San Bernardino case.
To recap, Apple says the court order is asking it to do three things: to disable the optional iOS feature that will erase a device after 10 incorrect passcode attempts; to allow passcodes to be entered rapidly and electronically so that investigators can unlock the device via brute force; and to remove the software-imposed time delays between incorrect passcode attempts. This software “simply does not exist today,” and Apple says that creating it would “require that Apple write new code” rather than simply disabling features that are already there.
For starters, Apple estimates it would take between six and ten Apple engineers between two and four weeks to design, code, validate, and deploy the software update. “Members of the team would include engineers from Apple’s core operating system group, a quality assurance engineer, a project manager, and either a document writer or a tool writer,” according to Apple’s motion.
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