14 DAY TRIAL // Apple executives have decided to share more information on the San Bernardino iPhone after the Department of Justice filed a new motion and accused the company of refusing to comply with a court order for good PR.
According to a report by Buzzfeed, company representatives have revealed that the iPhone 5c that was used by one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernardino attacks was already cracked by the FBI when the company was asked to access the information stored on it.
The executives claim that the FBI changed the password in less than 24 hours after the police found the iPhone, although it’s not yet very clear why the feds wanted to change the passcode.
But according to Apple, the company’s engineers planned to recover data on the iPhone using “four different ways,” including one that would involve connecting the phone to a known Wi-Fi network. When attempting to use this method, however, engineers couldn’t do it because the iPhone was already blocked since the Apple ID passcode was changed. This happened under government’s custody, Apple claims, and that’s why the FBI is now asking for a backdoor.
The backdoor is now the only way to hack the iPhone
Breaking into the iPhone now is impossible after the FBI attempted to crack it and turning to a backdoor seems to be the only way to do it. Furthermore, Apple claims that it never implied that creating such software isn’t impossible, but the company actually warns that building could put the privacy of all iPhone users across the world at risk.
“The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable,” Apple CEO Tim Cook warned in a statement released earlier this week.
Furthermore, Apple’s executives concluded that despite the criticism and the government’s accusations that it’s refusing to comply with judge orders because otherwise it could damage its image, the company is only doing so because of the “love for the country.”