Don’t be distracted by the technical details. The model of phone, the method of encryption, the detailed description of the specific attack technique, and even feasibility are all irrelevant.

Don’t be distracted by the legal wrangling. By the timing, the courts, or the laws in question. Nor by politicians, proposed legislation, Snowden, or speeches at think tanks or universities.

Don’t be distracted by who is involved. Apple, the FBI, dead terrorists, or common drug dealers.

Everything, all of it, boils down to a single question.

Do we have a right to security?

This isn’t the government vs. some technology companies. It’s the government vs. your right to fundamental security in the digital age.

Vendors like Apple have hit the point where some of the products they make, for us, are so secure that it is nearly impossible, if not impossible, to crack them. As a lifetime security professional, this is what my entire industry has been dreaming of since the dawn of computers. Secure commerce, secure communications, secure data storage. A foundation to finally start reducing all those data breaches, to stop China, Russia, and others from wheedling their way into our critical infrastructure. To make phones so secure they almost aren’t worth stealing, since even the parts aren’t worth much.

To build the secure foundation for the digital age that we so lack, and so desperately need. So an entire hospital isn’t held hostage because one person clicked on the wrong link.

The FBI, DOJ, and others are debating whether secure products and services should be legal. They hide this in language around warrants and lawful access, and scream about terrorists and child pornographers. What they don’t say, what they never admit, is that it is impossible to build in back doors for law enforcement without creating security vulnerabilities.

It simply can’t be done. If Apple, the government, or anyone else has master access to your device, to a service, or communications, that is a security flaw. It is impossible for them to guarantee that criminals or hostile governments won’t also gain such access. This isn’t paranoia, it’s a demonstrable fact. No company or government is completely secure.

And this completely ignores the fact that if the US government makes security illegal here, that destroys any concept of security throughout the rest of the world, especially in repressive regimes. Say goodbye to any possibility of new democracies. Never mind the consequences here at home. Access to our phones and our communications these days isn’t like reading our mail or listening to our phone calls – it’s more like listening to whispers to our partners at home. Like tracking how we express our love to our children, or fight the demons in our own minds.

The FBI wants this case to be about a single phone used by a single dead terrorist in San Bernadino to distract us from asking the real question. It will not stop at this one case – that isn’t how law works. They are also teaming with legislators to make encrypted, secure devices and services illegal. That isn’t conspiracy theory – it is the stated position of the Director of the FBI. Eventually they want systems to access any device or form of communications, at scale. As they already have with our phone system. Keep in mind that there is no way to limit this to consumer technologies, and it will have to apply to business systems as well, undermining corporate security.

So ignore all of that and ask yourself, do we have a right to security? To secure devices, communications, and services? Devices secure from criminals, foreign governments, and yes, even our own? And by extension, do we have a right to privacy? Because privacy without security is impossible.

Because that is what this fight is about, and there is no middle ground, mystery answer hiding in a research project, or compromise. I am a security expert. I have spent 25 years in public service and most definitely don’t consider myself a social activist. I am amused by conspiracy theories, but never take them seriously. But it would be unconscionable for me to remain silent when our fundamental rights are under assault by elements within our own government.

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