In 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik shot 14 people in San Bernardino, California. At the time, the terrorist attack was the deadliest the US had suffered since 9/11. The tragedy was followed by a dramatic showdown between the FBI and Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, that highlighted the furious debate about security and privacy in the digital age.
Federal agents wanted Apple’s help to hack into Farook’s iPhone. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, refused. The FBI went to court.
Susan Landau’s new book chooses this remarkable tussle as the entry point to an informative discussion about cryptography in a world where smartphones track our every move and foreign governments use social media to wage information warfare beyond their shores. But just as the stand-off between the FBI and Apple ended without a full resolution of the debate — in the end the US government found another company to break into Farook’s phone — so Landau’s latest work leaves the reader wishing for a deeper reckoning with these complex issues.