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Tim Cook said the FBI is asking Apple to write the 'software equivalent of cancer'

Tim Cook ABC interview
ABC

Tim Cook said what the FBI is asking Apple to do is write the "software equivalent of cancer" in an ABC interview Wednesday night.

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Apple has stood firmly behind its refusal to break into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

The FBI asked Apple not to limit the number of times a passcode can be tried in order to crack into the shooter's phone Feb. 16. The FBI also wants Apple to alter its iOS operating system so passcodes can be input electronically.

But Cook is refusing to comply with the FBI's request, stating that making such a key to access the device poses privacy concerns.

"The only way we know is to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the software equivalent of cancer," Cook said during the ABC interview. "We think it's bad news to write, we would never write it, we have never written it, and that is what is at stake here."

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Reports also surfaced last week that the Apple ID password associated with the suspected shooter's phone was changed less than 24 hours after it was placed in the government's possession. Had the password not been changed, Apple wouldn't need to create a tool allowing for a brute force attack as the FBI has requested.

"Some things are hard and some things are right and some things are both — this is one of those things," Cook said.


Apple Tim Cook FBI
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