Apple Says Password on San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone Was Changed While in Government Possession

For the first time since the court ordered Apple to unlock the iPhone 5c of one of the shooters of the San Bernardino’s case, Apple executives have revealed key details about the case to some reporters. The executives say that within 24 hours of the government taking possession of the phone, the password of the Apple ID linked to the shooter’s iPhone 5c was changed, which has now made it impossible to retrieve the information that the government wants.

If that hadn’t occurred, they may have been able to access a backup of the device.

The revelation comes after the DOJ filed a motion to compel the company to build a backdoor into the iPhone, alleging “Apple appears to object based on […] a perceived negative impact to its reputation and marketing strategy were it to provide the ordered assistance to the government.”

Theoretically, if the password was not changed, Apple could have helped the FBI in retrieving important data from the shooter’s iPhone 5c. However, with that option gone, the FBI now wants Apple to create a special version of iOS that can disable all security measures on an iPhone and provide them with complete control over the device.

When asked by reporters as to why the company is fighting so hard against the FBI request and if it was a marketing ploy from Apple as mentioned by the Justice Department in their motion, Apple executives said that they are doing this based on the love for their country and they don’t want to see its civil rights being thrown away.

From report:

Asked why the company is pushing back so hard against this particular FBI request when it has assisted the agency in the past, Apple executives noted that the San Bernadino case is fundamentally different from others in which it was involved. Apple has never before been asked to build an entirely new version of its iOS operating system designed to disable iPhone security measures.

[Source]