Ben Lovejoy at 9to5 Mac explains how Microsoft accidentally released its golden key “and it appears impossible for Microsoft to fully patch it.”

While talk of a government-mandated magic back-door into the iPhone has subsided, I’m sure we’ll hear about it more after the elections. Tim Cook was right. Such a tool is dangerous by its mere existence and, as Microsoft discovered, such a thing will inevitably land in the hands of hackers, criminals, foreign governments, and other bad actors.

While an iPhone back-door would help law enforcement with criminals not smart-enough to use alternative encryption, the massive privacy intrusion combined with its inevitable release make it a terrible idea.