Apple: iPhone Hacking Tool the 'Software Equivalent of Cancer'

WASHINGTON -- Apple CEO Tim Cook doubled down on his stance against creating a "backdoor" software to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernadino terrorists.

Cook told ABC's "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir that creating the tool at the center of the court fight in California between the FBI and Apple would be "the software equivalent of cancer."

"The only way to get information -- at least currently, the only way we know -- would be to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the equivalent of cancer. We think it's bad news to write. We would never write it. We have never written it, and that is what is at stake here," Cook said. "We believe that is a very dangerous operating system."

The New York Times reports that Apple engineers have instead begun developing software to make it next to impossible for the government to break into locked iPhones, using methods similar to the ones the FBI is pleading with Apple to create.

The FBI has tried breaking into the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook but is limited in their attempts to do so because Apple phones become permanently inaccessible after 10 failed attempts at providing the correct passcode.

Cook says Apple has given the FBI all the requested data in their possession, but says the U.S. government is now asking them to create "a backdoor" they intentionally do not have because they believe it is a dangerous tool to create.

"We gave everything that we had," Cook told ABC's Muir. "We don't know that there's any information on the phone. We don't know whether there is or there isn't. And the FBI doesn't know."

"What we do know is we passed all of the information that we have on the phone," he continued. "And to get additional information on it, or at least what the FBI would like us to do now, would expose hundreds of millions of people to issues."

A federal judge magistrate issued a court order telling Apple to write and install the code sought by the FBI, but Apple has promised to challenge that order. They have until Friday to file their opposition in court.

"If we knew a way to do this, that would not expose hundreds of millions of other people to issues, we would obviously do it," Cook said.

Cook warned this issue is not just about one case, but affects all Apple users privacy.

"This case is not about one phone, this case is about the future. What's at stake here is can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world, including the U.S., and also trample civil liberties that are at the basic foundation of what this country was made of?" Cook argued.

Experts say the only way to end the debate between Apple and the FBI is for Congress to get involved.

But if Congress passes a law requiring tech companies to give the FBI access to customer data, it would then apply to all cases, not just the phone of a known terrorist.