Security experts yesterday said that there is a “serious risk” that the special iPhone-cracking software sought by the FBI would fall into the wrong hands if Apple is forced to assist the government in accessing the data on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

“Keeping the Custom Code secret is essential to ensuring that this forensic software not pose a broader security threat to iOS users,” seven security experts said Thursday in a “friends-of-the-court” brief filed with a California federal court. “But the high demand [for this software] poses a serious risk that the Custom Code will leak outside of Apple’s facilities.”

The amicus brief — submitted yesterday on behalf of the experts by the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School — was aimed at the federal magistrate hearing a case involving Apple and the FBI. The agency wants Apple’s assistance in getting into the passcode-locked iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tafsheen Malik, killed 14 in San Bernardino, Calif. on Dec. 2, 2015. After the pair died in a shootout with police, authorities labeled the attack an act of terrorism.

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