So what does the showdown between Apple and the FBI over an order to cracking a terrorist’s iPhone to get information really mean? A Cybersecurity expert says the battle is “a wicked problem” that could lead to more “location behavior and data traffic surveillance.”

Mark Skilton, a professor at Warwick Business School in London, sees a “digital disruption downside” to the debate and points out that laws have not kept pace with changes in technology/

“I agree with these principles,” he said of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s argument against creating a backdoor into the iPhone to gain its secret data, “but I’m not hearing the voice about how to deal with strong encryption technology and citizen and national defense which has some challenges.

“It’s a wicked problem that needs some comparators that don’t exist today. I agree backdoor methods will be disastrous based on hacker history, but it will drive more advanced location behaviour and data traffic surveillance monitoring if strong encryption is used. This is a digital disruption downside.”

Skilton also pointed out how far behind case law is on technology.

“The California court using a law from the 18th Century says much about inadequacy of current legislation for the virtual economy. The 1789 All Writs Act ignores context and just forces compliance,” he said.

“(a) The Supreme Court and all courts established by Act of Congress may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.

“(b) An alternative writ or rule nisi may be issued by a justice or judge of a court which has jurisdiction.

“A Decree nisi seems to just be based on the one condition of ‘find a judge from somewhere’ to authorize access. Not a great piece of legislature.”

He does see one area of precedent.

“Probably the area of precedent in similarity is in the European Court of Human Rights with war crimes where anonymity of victims must be weighed for protection versus being able to expose perpetrators,” Skilton noted.

However, the Apple “issue is different with obfuscated identity caused by a new digital capability that is not just social or cultural silence aka the complicity of silence.

“I’m much more worried about the sound of silence.”