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Apple said in court filings last month that it would take from six to 10 engineers up to a month to meet the government's demands. However, because Apple is so compartmentalized, the challenge of building what the company described as "GovtOS" would be substantially complicated if key employees refused to do the work.
"Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple's core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers," Apple's lawyers wrote in the company's final brief to the Federal District Court for the Central District of California.
After interviewing Apple engineers, it has been revealed there is indeed a discussion among Apple employees about resisting any court order to deliberately weaken Apple security. Key engineers have said they may quit the company if forced to participate.
Huge fan of civil disobedience, and up till now it didn't occur to me that Apple engineers may quit. It seems like the government may really have no way at all of forcing the decryption of the iPhone without forcefully conscripting engineers into service, which is unlikely.
Good news everybody!
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday March 18 2016, @06:23PM
I'll respond since you quoted me. You goofed on your reading comprehension there. Add more to the sentence:
Unlikely was being kind. This isn't about finding new people, which is a huge assumption it could even work, but the likelihood of being conscripted into service.
It is indeed highly unlikely the government could conscript those specfic engineers back into the company, or even into a special government project. It would be exactly akin to Vietnam and being drafted into the service and "police action" against your will. How is unlocking the iPhone like going to war and being drafted into the military? Can we argue that drafting citizens for technical projects is morally and ethically valid, much less Constitutionally?
As for Apple hiring other people back which is easier, that would be a quite valid delay in the courts. Apple would have to find them, which let's say it's as easy as you describe. You must still then assume that they found serious talent, but also face an uphill battle since the original engineers are gone.
If you've ever had to go into a massively complicated and large platform to refactor it, I think you would understand how difficult and time consuming a process that would be. Legitimately, it could take 3-5 years. Apple said 10 months with the engineers who made it in the first place.
Bottom line is that if the government wants access to the data in any tactically viable time period in which they could use it, they truly do need to win the hearts and minds of these specific Apple engineers. Sounds like the chances of that are a snowball's chance in hell :D
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.