Judge Orders Apple to Help Authorities Access San Bernardino Shooters iPhone

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Posted February 17, 2016 at 4:12am by iClarified

A judge has ordered Apple to help the authorities access the iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters who, along with his wife, killed 14 people last December. The phone is owned by the county and authorities have consent as well as a warrant to retrieve data from the device, notes CNN.

"However, despite the search warrant and the owner's consent, the FBI has been unable to search the SUBJECT DEVICE because it is 'locked' or secured with a user-determined, numeric passcode," wrote the government in its court documents.

"More to the point, the FBI has been unable to make attempts to determine the passcode because Apple has written, or 'coded,' its operating systems with a user-enabled 'auto-erase function' that would, if enabled, result in the permanent destruction of the required encryption key material after 10 erroneous attempts at the passcode (meaning that after 10 failed attempts at inputting the passcode, the information on the device becomes permanently inaccessible)."

Eileen Decker, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said "We have made a solemn commitment to the victims and their families that we will leave no stone unturned as we gather as much information and evidence as possible. These victims and families deserve nothing less."

"The application filed today in federal court is another step -- a potentially important step -- in the process of learning everything we possibly can about the attack in San Bernardino."

Apple has yet to comment on the matter.

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Judge Orders Apple to Help Authorities Access San Bernardino Shooters iPhone

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Obamafailed - February 17, 2016 at 2:40pm

Just ask Geohotz " Goerge hotz" he can solve this code !!

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Bob Dole - February 17, 2016 at 2:17pm

http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

C D - February 17, 2016 at 9:10am

You guys have warrant for all their possession. If they have a Windows computer you can break into that thing and gain access to their emails and MOST likely their ICLOUD account. Once you get access to the ICLOUD account disable the remote wipe option so your 10 tries won't affect anything. I'm sure you can even plug it into the same machine and get access to the phone. Be creative guys or give me a crack at this. I deal with this kind of stuff daily.

What the... - February 17, 2016 at 12:42pm

You deal with this stuff daily and you don't even know the basics? First, you can not disable the remote wipe option from iCloud. The only way to disable the remote wipe is to unlock the phone and turn it off in the settings app. If the phone is encrypted, which it is if you enable the passcode like this phone has, you can not access the data. Period. It's laughable that you believe you can access the data when it's impossible for even Apple to access it. There is no way to get that data. It's done.

OnerFusion - February 18, 2016 at 7:44am

This can only be achieved if that guy has an iTunes backup of his phone on windows/mac then all his backup can be explored by iExplorer. :P

Mie - February 17, 2016 at 8:18am

If apple can bypass... Like i said before... Apple had 'backdoor' on their on device...

XyZ2016 - February 17, 2016 at 6:13am

tell them to use MFC box it gonna take minute but works

No - February 17, 2016 at 1:26pm

This will not work. The phone will erase itself after 10 failed attempts. All the MFC box does is try to guess the pass code.

stevenlacross - February 17, 2016 at 3:25pm

Actually that box does reboot the phone before it can write in its software that an attempt has been made therefore getting passed that limitation, however Apple patched that in iOS 8.3 or somewhere around then. So that box doesn't work anymore anyway.

Techno - February 17, 2016 at 5:51am

I'm sure the phone is 5S and above, why don't they use the finger print access?

justabrake - February 17, 2016 at 5:31am

Gov. chopping away at our constitution every time they want too ! This is Gov overstepping there powers !

Butterspider - February 17, 2016 at 10:44am

So true..... HOLD OUT APPLE!

PjSkip - February 17, 2016 at 10:55am

Completely agree with this statement. Regardless of reason, in many cases the end doesn't justify the means. Nice Try socialist Gov with political propaganda.

Jacob - February 17, 2016 at 11:21am

It's a court order based on Apple's own license. The government is following the letter of the law according to Apple's Eula. According to Apple YOU DO NOT OWN the software on YOUR iPHONE, Apple owns it. Which is the case the Government took to court, and won. If Apple does not want to be involved, they need to make it so that the ownership of the software goes with the ownership of the phone. But honestly this is all grandstanding. Apple has always helped law enforcement. It usually takes two weeks for Apple to return a phone submitted for unlocking. Become friends with someone from local law enforcement, and ask, or just watch the third Democratic debate when Hillary Clinton confirms the rumor that the tech companies approached the government to free them from liability. This must be what Apple asked for in part of their arrangement.

dkdk - February 17, 2016 at 11:26am

What are you dudes yapping about? The article clearly states that THE OWNER of the phone is authorising the request. There is no government overreach, no constitutional infringement, no SkyNet apocalypse, nada. Take it easy.

stevenlacross - February 17, 2016 at 3:23pm

The owner is dead. How is the article clearly saying the owner is asking for the phone password? Did you even read the article?

Well... Did YOU read the article? - February 17, 2016 at 5:54pm

It clearly states that the government owns the iPhone. Syed Farook was a county employee and the iPhone he was using was provided by the county so no, the owner is not dead, just the user.

OnerFusion - February 17, 2016 at 5:16am

Wish they could apple even do iCloud scan for images of the victims who were in lost Malaysian Flights

ChiChi - February 17, 2016 at 4:24am

Double edge sword. Apple owes it to the victims of the shooting to assist but once Apple agreed to this matter, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies will not stop hounding Apple for access for the rest of iPhone users.

stevenlacross - February 17, 2016 at 5:02am

This is true, but I think Apple designed iOS to not be able to bypass the passcode, so unfortunately Apple cant help the fbi(I hope this is true)

Cp - February 17, 2016 at 11:21pm

Come now. Nothing is impossible. Always an exception to every rule.