The big fight between Apple and the FBI is all Apple's fault

Apple is in a big fight with the FBI over privacy and security that could mean the company has to provide a so-called backdoor around its encryption, and the problem is, it's all Apple's fault.

Here's how true end-to-end encryption works: I unlock my phone and send a text message, which gets jumbled up into unrecognizable characters, sent through Apple's servers, then onto the recipient, who unscrambles it and reads it. Only the two ends of the conversation should see anything.

But here's the problem: Apple built a backdoor into the iPhone just for itself — a way for the company to load up new software that could make it easier to gain access — and now the FBI wants to take that backdoor for a spin, too.

But that may not be the case with the iPhone 5S and better. All iPhones built since the 5S have a special chip, a "secure enclave," that theoretically can't be cracked into even if Apple wanted to.

Plenty of tech companies make it impossible for anyone — including them — to access encrypted user data. They have tied their own hands, as Soghoian says.

But that's not the case here with Apple.

The company is learning the hard way that the only way to keep its phones secure is to make sure a master key doesn't exist.

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