Apple: FBI Cracked San Bernardino iPhone and Blocked It, Backdoor Wasn’t Needed

“What I think you outta do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number”.

Prosecutors also argued that the phone may contain “relevant, critical communications and data around the time” of the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack and may be obtained only if the government is allowed to search the phone with Apple’s help.

The Justice Department says it needs Apple’s help in its investigation into the terror attacks, but accuses Apple of resisting the judge’s order out of “concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy”.

But the Justice Department struggled to find a compelling case where encryption proved to be an insurmountable hurdle for its investigators until the December 2 shooting rampage by Rizwan Farook and his wife in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14.

The motion to compel Apple’s compliance said technology providers in the past have been required to “write some amount of code to gather information in response to subpoenas”.

Cook’s denunciation of the order came as Apple launched its smartphone-based payment system in China, where the electronic payments market is already dominated by an arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

In the order, prosecutors acknowledged that the latest filing was “not legally necessary” since Apple had not yet responded to the initial order.

The Republican then admitted to using both an iPhone and Samsung, and threatened to drop the former altogether if Apple didn’t “give info to authorities on the terrorists”.

“[The court order] does not provide “hackers and criminals” access to iPhones; it does not require Apple to hack [its] own phones; it does not give the government “the power to reach into anyone’s device” without a warrant or court authorisation; and it does not compromise the security of personal information”, the Justice Department motion said. Refusing to go to an Apple store?

“It helps them with users who appreciate their stance on data security but it also will anger a lot of people who have a different political viewpoint on the issue”, Matte said. “Who do they think they are?”.

Feland said the move could build momentum for the upcoming release of the iPhone 7. “And that’s where the iPhone comes in”.

“Rather than assist the effort to fully investigate a deadly terrorist attack by obeying this Court’s order of February 16, 2016, Apple has responded by publicly repudiating that Order”, the prosecutors wrote. The Justice Department declined to comment on that contention.