Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook posted a letter about the company’s intentions to appeal a court ruling ordering them to assist the FBI in bypassing the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone security. Cook said that doing so would create a “backdoor” to any other iPhone, and would potentially violate civil liberties and other users’ security. Now new reports reveal that a San Bernardino County official messed up any attempt to access the iPhone by resetting the Apple ID associated with the phone.
Mashable spoke to a senior Apple executive who said that the government official, likely working IT, reset the ID in an attempt to access the data on San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s phone. However, automatic backups won’t occur with the reset ID until someone enters in the phone’s passcode. Nobody but Farook knew what it was.
While the Department of Justice said that Farook turned off his iCloud backup six weeks before the attacks, Apple says that they can’t verify that information, since nobody can get into the reset iPhone. They have, however, provided the FBI with the iCloud information they had before Farook stopped backing up his phone.
In addition, on Friday, the Justice Department filed a new motion seeking to compel Apple to comply with the court order before the original February 26th deadline. According to the Verge, the DOJ filing says Apple’s refusal appears “to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy.” Ouch.