“In a letter to customers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday that Pym’s ruling was an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers”.
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The executives said they chose to reveal these details because the government made the recovering methods it discussed with Apple public in today’s filing. A court hearing is scheduled for March 22 for the judge to hear directly from the two sides.
When that attempt did not work, Apple was mystified, but soon found out that the Apple ID account password had been changed shortly after the phone was in the custody of law enforcement, possibly by someone from the county health department.
If that hadn’t happened, Apple thinks it might have been possible to access the phone without creating custom software to bypass the iPhone’s passcode requirement.
“Rather than assist the effort to fully investigate a deadly terrorist attack by obeying this court’s [previous order], Apple has responded by publicly repudiating that order”, prosecutors wrote in the filing.
If granted, the motion would force Apple to comply with the court’s order from earlier this week or risk being held in contempt. Before the motion was filed, the court had given Apple’s attorneys a few days to argue their case against the earlier order.
In its request that Pym enforce her ruling, issued Tuesday, the Justice Department added that Apple’s refusal to comply “appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy”. If Apple doesn’t give info to authorities on the terrorists I’ll only be using Samsung until they give info. The Apple executives said that the reset occurred before Apple was consulted.
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has voiced support for the company’s position and quickly responded to Trump’s latest move, tweeting “can we boycott Trump instead?”
Syed Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, launched an attack in December where they killed 14 of Farook’s coworkers at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to voters at a rally at the The Myrtle Beach Sports Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 19, 2016.
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In response, senior Apple executives told reporters they felt they were in good company, given the other groups and people Trump has criticized in the past.
