FBI-Apple Spat Could Spur Mobile Security Push

Since the rise of the Internet, digital security firms have played on customers’ fears of hackers to sell as much software and hardware they could. Now, the mobile security industry might have a new boogeyman with which to spook the public into more sales.

Reuters reported that several mobile security executives believe the FBI’s injunction against Apple could serve to spur a new age of devices that include encryption specifically designed to make it harder for government officials to pry their ways into personal data. Though an Apple spokesman wouldn’t go on the record, another unnamed executive told Reuters that the company plans to supercharge its encryption policies if it wins its court case against the government. Even then, though, a loss could be an even more powerfully galvanizing moment for a tech industry already strongly united against what they perceive as unlawful incursions into customers’ data — and their proprietary technology.

Reuters pointed out the growing international industry of smartphones hardwired to resist illicit access — brands with names like BlackPhone and Turing Phone evoke images of military-style devices strong enough to withstand falls from tall buildings — let alone the prying eyes of a low-level intelligence analyst. Chris Wysopal, cofounder and CTO of software security firm Veracode, told Reuters that the harder the government pushes on Apple, the more desperate customers will look to the overseas mobile security market.

“That’s going to happen,” Wysopal said. “People will go out of the country, and there will be a market.”

In some extra security help from abroad, mobile users could also start adjusting some of their own behaviors that the current mobile market is built on. Namely, since the as-yet-undesigned iPhone unlocking tool would ostensibly be delivered via automatic system updates, Reuters noted that Apple could see its consumers turning this feature off out of fear of government infiltration — a move that could have wide-ranging effects on how Apple contacts its users in the wild.