Why Apple is in a historic fight with the government over one iPhone

[Commentary] Anyone watching the encryption debate over the past year and a half knew that this day would come.

“This is the ideal case for the government to challenge industry in the encryption debate,” said Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department official and a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. “The facts are sympathetic to the government and present the starkest example of their need to gain access to encrypted data to protect the American public.”

What the government wants Apple to do is design software to install on the phone that would block it from automatically wiping data after 10 unsuccessful tries at entering a password. That would enable the FBI to “brute force” the phone’s password — attempting tens of millions of combinations without risking deletion of the data. The government also wanted the software to permit the FBI to send passwords to the phone electronically, rather than having someone manually type them in. And the software must prevent the phone from adding delays between password attempts. The request, the Justice Department said, does not require Apple to redesign its products, to disable the phone’s encryption or open its contents. The software, it said, would operate only on that one phone. Technical experts said that all of that is possible.

The question: Is it desirable?