A confirmed report has come from the FBI regarding the rumor about them collaborating with the County Government of San Bernardino in order to reset the password for the iCloud of the iPhone 5c used by the shooter of the San Bernardino case. According to a press conference held by Apple, the ID password for the Apple iPhone used by the shooter, Syed Farook was actually changed within 24 hours of it being in government custody. According to the reports, if this ID password was not changed by the government, Apple engineers could have actually extracted the iCloud information for the government.
On the other hand, FBI stated that even if the password was changed and prevented Apple from accessing the iCloud backup, it is not something which prevents Apple from complying with the court order given to Apple by the Federal Judge. This order clearly stated that the company needs to create an iOS which is not only the updated version of the existing iOS 9 of the iPhone in question, but also gives the FBI ability to enter as many passwords as they needto get the device unlocked. Originally, Apple allows only 10 inputs of wrong passwords before wiping off the data in the phone.
According to statements put forward by the FBI, directly extracting data from any iPhone contains much more information than the same data extracted from the iCloud backup system. They simply need the updated iOS to extract data directly in order to get ahead with the case. As per the statements put forward by the Apple CEO, is still not complying with the court order and is contesting the order.
After getting the court order, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a letter and uploaded it to the public forum. According to the letter, creating such an iOS will actually help the FBI but will provide them a weapon to tap into any iPhone in the world. Having one of the safest security systems in the smartphone industry, Apple doesn’t want to put the privacy of all Apple iPhone users at risk.
On being asked about this, the White House actually denied that FBI had asked of such a program, but went on it to stating that the FBI wanted a program to only gain access to the iPhone they have under custody, and not all iPhones. According to the Department of Justice in USA, it is all a marketing strategy used by Apple.
