The American Justice Department announced on Tuesday that the FBI was able to break into the iPhone of the terrorist who committed that attack in the town of San Bernardino, California last December in which 14 people were killed.
US authorities said they will continue to petition the court, demanding Apple break into the iPhone 5c of the terrorist.
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“From the beginning we were opposed to the FBI’s demand that we break into the iPhone for them”, Apple responded to the Justice Department’s announcement. “We believed that this was wrong and would be a dangerous precedent.”
Last month, a judge ordered the technology giant Apple to help the FBI break into terrorist Syed Farook’s cellphone. Federal Judge Sherry Pym ordered Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the FBI, requiring Apple to develop software that will override the automatic lock-up of the device, which did not allow researchers to unlock the terrorist’s iPhone and check whether there is information about other terrorists who intend to carry out attacks in the United States.
Farooq’s iPhone belongs to San Bernardino’s health department where he was employed. The department gave its approval to the authorities to search the device, but it was locked with a numeric passcode. The FBI’s attempts to crack the access code have failed until recently.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, strongly opposed the demand. He wrote that “the United States government demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand. This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.”
Yedioth Ahronot revealed last week that it was the Israeli company Cellebright based in Petach Tikva that helped the Americans break into the terrorist’s iPhone.
