Apple v FBI in 5 points.

It strikes me as a showdown of strange and confusing origins — a leading multinational company seeks reversal of court order in support of law enforcement investigation.

The apparent rationale being protection and security of millions of loyal customers, which would be undermined if the requested mechanism were created to access the device in question.

Points to consider.

1. Does the FBI have sufficient resources (internal or contracted) in order to adequately police in the 21st century?
2. Does Apple have any plans to offer genuine customers the ability to access their own info, in the event of forgotten passwords. For example, folks involved in an accident or other factors causing loss of memory.
3. Is the device truly this secure? If a software solution is being requested, then it seems physical tamper resistance is not part of the device. Hard drives can be and are routinely recovered. If encrypted, it’s then a matter of cracking the keys, I’m sure Apple can provide specs if not already public. What am I missing? If info is on the memory of a device, physically removing it and extracting the data would bypass the need for interaction with the phone, and decryption can be carried out offline.
4. As for the legalities. Why is a phone different from the privacy of a residence? A warrant is granted to search a home, and if this process is abused, it hopefully is corrected through a standardized audit process. Under a scenario where information was not accessible, would we be setting the legal system up for less evidence based decisions? No doubt law enforcement will still need to access information, are we encouraging less transparency? What if the stakes were much higher?

It used to be that companies helped the causes of their country in times of crisis, I sense many now function without that community spirit, ironically this will force government to actually acquire the specialized expertise needed, and no doubt the methods used will need to remain secret.

Five. Until such time as in-house Law Enforcement capability exists, it seems like one off requests, just as with location based physical search warrants, would be a more effective way to ensure the public interest is served.