If Apple Is Forced to Unlock the iPhone, It Will Weaken Our Ability to Fight Cybercrime

As the senior counterterrorism official in the U.S. government for nine years, I felt the personal burden of responsibility for preventing terrorist attacks, so I understand Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Jim Comey's desire to collect every possible bit of data. As a nation, however, we have decided that there should be limits to what the government can do to stop terrorism, counter illegal narcotics and fight crime. The case of the iPhone that belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters, is best seen as an attempt by the FBI to redefine those limits.

In the 1990s, the government proposed a law that would have required encryption software to have a "Clipper Chip," a backdoor by which the government could decrypt software. Congress did not approve, and President Bill Clinton withdrew the proposal. That established limits: encrypted software could exist that the government, even with a court order, could not decrypt. Such software is now legally sold in America and elsewhere around the world. Comey wants to make it illegal.

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