The legal battle between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is turning ugly with each passing day.
Apple is fighting with the federal authorities over iPhone encryption case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requires Apple's assistance to unlock an iPhone 5C belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said explicitly that providing a backdoor would likely open up the company's iPhones to not just the federal agents, but also to malicious hackers who could use it for evil purposes.
Now the Apple's decision not to comply with the court order has provoked a Florida sheriff, who has threatened to arrest Tim Cook if he gets the chance.
Sheriff Vows: I'll Lock the Rascal up.
During a Wednesday press conference, when Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was asked about Cook's refusal to help create a custom operating system that would assist the FBI to circumvent security measures on terrorist iPhone 5C, he told reporters that Cook required knowing he's not above the law.
Here's what Judd said about Apple Vs. FBI case:
"You can't create a business model to go, 'We are not paying attention to the federal judge or the state judge. You see, we are above the law,'" said Judd quoted by FOX 13. "The CEO of Apple needs to know he's not above the law, and neither is anybody else in the United States."
Judd comments came while discussing a recent murder case where the suspects took photos of the victim on their phones. He said that the case was made easier by the brothers' decision to show those photographs.
Though the murder case Judd was discussing involved neither an iPhone nor a phone hacking, he noted that if he were to deal with locked iPhones in the future, he would put Cook behind bars under a contempt of court order.
"I can tell you, the first time we do have trouble getting into a cell phone, we're going to seek a court order from Apple," he said. "And when they deny us, I am going to go lock the CEO of Apple up. I'll lock the rascal up."
However, we could not say the sheriff was labeling Tim Cook as Rascal, but he apparently said that if he could get a chance, he might have arrested Cook for not helping authorities with backdoors.
