The most striking aspect of Apple's message to customers on Tuesday wasn't the rejection of U.S. authorities' demand that the company help them break the encryption of an iPhone owned by Syed Rizwan Farook, who was involved in the murders of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last year. It was Apple's admission that it has the technological capacity to help, despite previous statements to the contrary. In other words, Apple is acknowledging that it isn't encryption that protects the personal data of its customers, but the company's stubborn insistence on keeping its software proprietary and its refusal to accept open-source software. That, however, is hardly perfect protection.
In October, Apple filed a response to a New York court's order that asked about the feasibility of gaining access to private data on an encrypted iPhone. It repeated numerous previous statements from Apple executives:
"For devices running iOS 8 or higher, Apple would not have the technical ability to do what the government requests — take possession of a password protected device from the government and extract unencrypted user data from that device for the government."