Solution Providers Take Sides In Apple-FBI Encryption Debate

/**/ /**/

As hearings continue about whetherApple should give the FBI access to one of the San Bernardino shooters' iPhone, solution providers interviewed by CRNtv have weighed in and sided heavily with Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple.

"I don't know for sure what the FBI wants," said Kansas City-based Midwest Technology Connection's Brett Littrell. "But what I understand is that they want Apple to create something. In other words, they want Apple to take their own resources, to take something that doesn't exist, at their own cost, that will diminish the value of their product -- so that the FBI can ultimately get into all of our information."

"I'm on Apple's side," agreed Mark Rizzo of Rx Technology, San Antonio, Texas. "But I don't think that the government should crack it. I think that they should let the private industry crack it."

"I'm clearly siding with Apple on that," said Vice President David Powell of Homewood, Ala.-based TekLinks. "Ultimately, it's a slippery slope. We should have some expectation around privacy on our devices."

Martin Burke of Tampa, Fla.-based Integrated Solutions Management was the lone voice in support of the FBI.

"I don't think that it's that much of a violation, and I think the benefit of the information outweighs the risk, if the risk is managed," he said.