DOJ Postpones iPhone Court Rearing - May not need Apple's help any longer
Feds gain postponement of iPhone hearing
The Justice Department may not need Apple's help any
longer.
By TONY ROMM and JOSH GERSTEIN 03/21/16 06:34 PM EDT Updated
03/21/16 09:54 PM EDT
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Citing a new possible way to access a
locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino terrorist attack, the
Justice Department on Monday convinced a federal court to cancel a Tuesday
hearing on whether Apple should be forced to help the FBI break into the
device.
Government lawyers had insisted for months they needed
Apple to write special software so the FBI could bypass security features on
the iPhone being used by the San Bernardino shooter, Syed Farook, and obtain
what could be critical information for their ongoing terrorism investigation.
But the Justice Department unexpectedly told the court
just hours before a scheduled hearing that it may not need Apple’s assistance
after all.
"On Sunday, March 20, 2016, an outside party
demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking Farook's iPhone,"
federal prosecutors said in a filing Monday afternoon. "Testing is
required to determine whether it is a viable method that will not compromise
data on Farook's iPhone. If the method is viable, it should eliminate the need
for the assistance from Apple Inc. ('Apple') set forth in the All Writs Act
Order in this case."
For the moment, the DOJ’s move hits the pause button on a
case that has pitted Washington against Silicon Valley in a fierce debate over
the role tech companies should play in terrorism investigations. The Justice
Department now has until April 5 to test its prospective technical fix, which
law enforcement sources, speaking with reporters on Monday, repeatedly declined
to detail.
Apple said late Monday it learned about the DOJ’s change
of plans only hours before the government filed its motion. The company’s
lawyers, who spoke to reporters on background, said they were unaware of who
the Justice Department contacted or how it planned to gain access to the
device.
Earlier Monday, however, Apple CEO Tim Cook affirmed his
company’s intent to fight this and other cases where the government seeks
greater access to digital data. As he unveiled his company’s latest iPhone,
Cook pledged on stage in San Francisco that Apple would not “shirk from [its]
responsibility” to protect its users.
In the San Bernardino case, the Justice Department had
asked a federal magistrate in February to require Apple to write software to
help unlock Farook’s password-protected iPhone. Apple doesn’t retain a copy of
device passwords, and the iPhone is programmed to erase itself after too many
failed attempts to unlock it. The DOJ wanted the company craft special software
to remove the restriction.
Federal Magistrate Sheri Pym initially sided with the DOJ
in February, drawing a sharp rebuke from Apple, which lambasted the
government’s request as a digital “backdoor.” In the eyes of the tech company,
a win for the government would set a dangerous legal precedent, allowing the
Justice Department unparalleled access to all digital communications in other
major national security investigations. Apple argued Congress never gave law
enforcement such power, and doing so now would only encourage foreign
governments to seek the same access in the future.
The legal battle — marked by bitter rhetoric from both
sides — quickly encompassed much of Silicon Valley. Top firms like Amazon,
Facebook, Google and Microsoft filed legal briefs in support of Apple, urging
the judge not to embolden the FBI as it seeks greater access to data it can't
currently intercept or decipher — a problem its director has called “going
dark.” Both Apple and the Justice Department seemed to indicate they would
continue fighting the case for as long as necessary, setting up an historic war
between Washington and Silicon Valley.
In its filings with the court, the Justice Department initially
argued it had no option to obtain the data other than ask for Apple’s help —
even as security experts suggested the FBI might have been able to extract the
phone's contents by other means. FBI Director James Comey was grilled about a
potential technical solution by lawmakers like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on
Capitol Hill earlier this month.
The DOJ did not specify in its court filing Monday,
however, exactly how it planned to obtain the contents of the San Bernardino
device. Nor did law enforcement officials, speaking to reporters on background,
explain who their “outside source” was or how the FBI got in contact with them.
"As a result of these efforts, an outside party
demonstrated to the FBI this past weekend a possible method for unlocking the
phone," a DOJ spokeswoman said in a statement. "We must first test
this method to ensure that it doesn’t destroy the data on the phone, but we
remain cautiously optimistic. That is why we asked the court to give us some
time to explore this option."
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