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US Department of Justice still wants Apple’s help unlocking iPhones

Over the last few weeks, Apple and the FBI have been butting heads over the unlocking of an iPhone 5c owned by a criminal. So far, Apple has refused to create a back door into its software for the authorities and while the FBI did eventually find another way into its iPhone and offered to assist other agencies with accessing certain iPhones, this technique apparently only works on models that don't sport Touch ID.

Due to this, the US Department of Justice still requires accessing an iPhone 5S, which was apparently owned by someone involved in drug trafficking. This case is open in New York, with Attorneys submitting a filing showing that they want to move forward with a legal effort to have Apple unlock the iPhone.

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The filing (via VentureBeat) specifically says: “The government’s application is not moot and the government continues to require Apple’s assistance in accessing the data that it is authorized to search by warrant”. This also seems to lend some validity to the FBI's admission that its current iPhone hacking method only works on the iPhone 5c or lower.

At the time of writing, Apple has not responded to the latest legal movement. However, Tim Cook seems pretty set on fighting against court orders forcing Apple to unlock the iPhone so perhaps we will hear more in the next few days.

KitGuru Says: Legal agencies over in the US don't seem to be giving up on attempts to force Apple to help unlock the iPhone any time soon. The FBI may have managed to get into the iPhone it had but other agencies across the US may be out of luck without direct help. It will be interesting to see how Apple continues to respond to these on-going legal proceedings. Do you guys think Apple should be open to helping the authorities access iPhones owned by criminals? 

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6 comments

  1. seeing that apple has opened iphones for the feds dozens of times before and only pulled this stunt for publicity…

  2. Criminals have victims. Lets be clear on what a criminal is. A criminal violates one rights, property, or b ody/life without consent. To even begin a conversation with the notion that a “drug dealer” is a criminal is enough to usually keep me from saying anything but the realitry is someone needs to say it. Stop feeding the propaganda. Go research some case law in the SCOTUS and tell me what cases have been utilized to destroy our rights? 2nd Amendment CHECK 4th AMENDMENT check 5th AMENDMENT CHECK 14th AMENDMENT Check! are you all to freaking scared to wake up or are you cylons or something? DRUG CASES! And that they continue to erode our rights based of the notion that people who do and use drugs are criminals. In Nevada a rapist gets 7 years, you can shoot someone in the face and only do 3 years, but goddamm let the cops say they found some dope at your house and you could be looking at 20 years.

    This case is a perfect example of my hypothesis. If drugs aint 100$% legal for adults then you are not, and cannot be free because that means that someone is being forced to be someone they are not

    signed The alleged drug trafficking, gun toting, transsexual prostitute

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  4. Really? Are you sucking things out of your thumb or is there a source of this? I’d like to see that please.

  5. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/feds-apple-has-unlocked-iphones-before/

    google is a thing, use it.

  6. Yeah obviously. It’s not that I didn’t check google myself before I asked for a source. But thank you.