DOJ Again Trying To Force Apple’s Help To Break Terror Suspect’s iPhone, Says FBI Doesn’t Want ‘Back Door’

Suspect's iPhone
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday filed a new court motion intended to force Apple to assist agents in bypassing a security feature that would allow investigators to access a smartphone that belonged to San Bernardino terror suspect Syed Farook. Apple, which has already refused one court order to aid the bureau, has argued that the government's request presents significant privacy concerns involving its customers. Photo by Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice is taking the gloves off in its fight with Apple to access a cellphone belonging to one of the San Bernardino terror suspects.

The federal law enforcement agency filed a court motion Friday in an attempt to force Apple, the phone’s manufacturer, to help the FBI break into the smartphone used by suspected gunman Syed Rizwan Farook.

The legal maneuver is the FBI’s third attempt at breaking into the phone to obtain potentially important information about the December attack that killed 14 at San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center. Officials have said encryption on the phone is so secure that Apple is now the only entity that can bypass it.

When agents first couldn’t get into the phone, they asked for Apple’s help. The iPhone maker refused, despite a federal court order, citing privacy concerns.

“Rather than assist the effort to fully investigate a deadly terrorist attack by obeying this court’s [previous order], Apple has responded by publicly repudiating that order,” prosecutors wrote in Friday’s filing, ABC News reported.

Justice prosecutors suggested in Friday’s filing that Apple appears to be more concerned about profits than prevention of future potential attacks.

“Apple’s current refusal to comply with the Court’s Order, despite the technical feasibility of doing so, instead appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy,” prosecutors wrote.

The iPhone belongs to the city of San Bernardino, Farook’s employer, but investigators haven’t been able to access the device due to the sophisticated level of security on the smartphone.

Authorities say Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire indiscriminately at the social services center during a holiday party on Dec. 2. The pair fled the scene but were tracked down and shot dead by police hours later. It was the deadliest domestic terror attack since 9/11.

The information authorities seek involves data that might be in the phone concerning other potential conspirators in the attack or other intelligence that could shine more light on the plot.

“Pertinent information that would provide more information about their and others’ involvement in the deadly shooting,” prosecutors wrote in an initial request for Apple’s assistance this week.

Apple’s response, though, was swift, definitive and expressed great concern.

“The U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create,” chief executive Tim Cook said Wednesday.

The problem, as seen by Apple, is that the FBI’s request requires the company to create software that would facilitate the siphoning of personal data from the locked iPhone — which is exactly the type of activity the security features were designed to prevent.

The ongoing fight has divided Americans into two camps.

Several privacy and technology experts and officials have since supported Apple’s argument.

“Requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices and data. Could be a troubling precedent,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said this week.

Others, including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, feel that the need for national security and the safety of American citizens, at a time when domestic terrorism is on the rise, should be higher priorities than any company’s theoretical privacy concerns — particularly on a case-by-case basis, such as this.

“Apple, this is one case. … a case that certainly we should be able to get into the phone,” Trump said.

Cook has said the primary concern with helping the FBI in such an endeavor is the potential for abuses in the future.

“The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on [Farook’s] iPhone,” he added. “In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

“They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.”

Federal prosecutors, though, say that’s not at all what the FBI is asking for.

“The Order does not, as Apple’s public statement alleges, require Apple to create or provide a ‘backdoor’ to every iPhone,” the filing said.

Rather, prosecutors say, the FBI is asking Apple to disable a security feature on the phone that will reset the phone and erase its contents if agents enter an incorrect password more than 10 times. Without the feature, the bureau’s experts would be able to execute an unlimited number of attempts until they cracked the password.

The fight, if it continues, could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

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