Security News > 2020 > May > Attorney General: We didn't need Apple to crack terrorist's iPhones – tho we still want iGiant to do it in future

The US Department of Justice is once again taking Apple to task for not cooperating with device decryption requests, even after it announced that it had retrieved information from a pair of iPhones without Cupertino's help.

"Thanks to the great work of the FBI - and no thanks to Apple - we were able to unlock Alshamrani's phones," said Attorney General Barr.

As Barr alluded to, this announcement comes after the Feds spent months fighting with Apple over their request that Alshamrani's phones be forcibly unlocked and the contents decrypted by Apple and then handed back over to law enforcement.

Since the unlocking demand was made public by Barr in January, Apple has maintained it provided the FBI with assistance by giving access to iCloud backups of both of Alshamrani's iPhones.

ACLU senior staff attorney Brett Max Kaufman pointed out that what Barr didn't address was why, if the FBI can get data off the iPhone without Apple's help, they still need the back door?

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/18/barr_whines_about_apple/