Apple CEO Tim Cook: FBI asked us to make software 'equivalent of cancer'

Trying to build public support as it prepares to do legal battle with the FBI, Apple's boss has said the debate needs to be conducted openly and fairly

Apple chief executive Tim Cook accused the US government of asking his firm to engineer the "software equivalent of cancer" to help investigators unlock a terrorist's iPhone.

"This is not about one phone," Cook told ABC multiple times in an interview, which aired 24 February. "This case is about the future. Can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world?"