14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has officially been requested to unlock the iPhone SE used by the Texas church shooter, with the FBI seeking access to the device itself and to the man’s iCloud account.
Furthermore, the feds are requesting access to a backup phone that Kelley is believed to have been using, but in this case, it’s a feature phone manufactured by LG.
Apple hasn’t issued a public response on the search warrant, but the company has been known as one of the biggest critics of device backdoors and requests to hack devices, with one particular case making the headlines after the San Bernardino shooting in late 2015.
At that time, the FBI requested Apple to unlock the iPhone used by one of the terrorists, citing national security as a reason the company should provide the investigators with access to the password-protected device. Apple, however, refused to comply and moved the dispute to court, emphasizing that hacking one of its devices would compromise the security of all customers.
FBI could have unlocked the device without a hack
The FBI eventually managed to unlock the iPhone with help from a third-party group of hackers who reportedly exploited an iOS vulnerability to extract the data stored on the device.
This time, however, the agency reportedly failed to unlock the iPhone SE used by the Texas shooter by failing to act within 48 hours after discovering the device. Touch ID automatically prompts the user to input the passcode after 48 hours since the previous unlock, and should the FBI knew this, they could have used the fingerprint of the dead owner to access the data without the need for any other hack.
The only help that Apple will most likely agree to provide will be extracting iCloud backups stored on its servers, though it’s not clear right now if any exist. On the other hand, the company is expected to refuse to unlock the device for the same reasons it cited in 2015 in the San Bernardino saga.