Scalper1 News
The U.S. Department of Justice has withdrawn its demand that Apple ( AAPL ) help it hack into an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., massacre, according to media reports late Monday. The news comes one week after the Justice Department said it had learned of a way to unlock a password-protected iPhone without Apple’s help. Last week, the FBI said an unidentified outside party had demonstrated to it a possible method for unlocking the iPhone in question. CNBC reported Monday that authorities had successfully accessed data on the iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, one of the two now-deceased killers in the San Bernardino shootings. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2. The radicalized Muslim couple, described in press reports as supporters of terror group ISIS, died in a gun battle with police. A U.S. magistrate on Feb. 16 ordered Apple to assist the FBI in hacking Farook’s iPhone, but Apple contested the order, saying it would set a dangerous precedent. Apple said the government wanted it to create a back door around its security protections that would put the data of all of its customers at risk. Apple executives said the government was overstepping its bounds by ordering Apple to write special software to hack its own smartphones. The case has fueled a debate over smartphone encryption, which has pitted Silicon Valley and civil rights groups against the federal government and law enforcement agencies. Federal authorities now say they don’t need Apple’s help in the case and are asking the judge to drop her Feb. 16 order. USA Today was the first to report that the government would drop its case against Apple. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News