Adi Shamir co-invented the vaunted RSA algorithm (he’s the ‘S’ in RSA) told a panel at RSA Conference 2016 earlier this week, that in this particular case he is siding with the FBI.

“This is a case where it’s clear those people are guilty. They are dead; their constitutional rights are not involved. This is a major crime where 14 people were killed. The phone is intact. All of this aligns in favour of the FBI.”

 

Shamir  said that this is not a case of putting backdoors on millions of phones around the world.Even though Apple has helped in countless cases – it decided not to comply this time.

"My advice is that they comply this time and wait for a better test case to fight where the case is not so clearly in favour of the FBI.”

 

Shamir said that the FBI asked Apple to do something very specific. It’s the case of a single phone. While it could set a precedent, if you look at the issue carefully,  it falls squarely on the side of helping the FBI in one particular case on a particular device, doing something that Apple is capable of doing.

He also blames Apple for having a mobile OS with a loophole capable of being exploited in the first place, something that Apple has promised to be working on.