US may not need Apple’s help to unlock suspects' iPhones

Apple has said it may not be needed to help unlock an iPhone connected to a drug case in New York if the US government finds a way to independently access the phone used by the gunman in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday it had been approached by a third party about a possible method to get into the San Bernardino shooter’s phone.

Apple had been fighting attempts to force it to unlock the drug dealer’s phone for months before the California case thrust the battle between the company and the government into the spotlight.

Case on hold

Apple has now asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to delay a deadline for submissions in the case there, saying the government may not need its help accessing the drug dealer’s device if the same method the government is using in California can be used in New York.

US district judge Margo Brodie yesterday gave the government until March 29th to respond to Apple’s letter. “If the DOJ claims that the method will not work on the iPhone here, Apple will seek to test that claim, as well as any claims by the government that other methods cannot be used,” attorneys for Apple said in the letter.

The government is appealing a magistrate judge’s ruling from February that the company doesn’t need to co-operate with investigators in the Brooklyn iPhone case. The government has sought Apple’s help because self-destruct features on newer iPhones wipe out data if prosecutors try “brute force” techniques to hack in. The contents of the drug dealer’s phone were not backed up to remote cloud storage, leaving the physical device as the only source of data, the US said.

Apple said any movement on the case should wait until after April 5th, when the Justice Department is to report the status of its efforts to test its potential workaround in the San Bernardino case. The technology in the cases differ.

The dealer’s phone in Brooklyn uses iOS 7, an older operating system that Apple had routinely been able to hack. The shooter’s phone used a newer operating system, designed to be more secure so that even Apple itself could not break into it.

– (Bloomberg)