to Twitter<\/a> late on Tuesday to weigh in on the issue.<\/p>\n\u201cWe are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues,\u201d Trump said in his characteristic style, \u201cand yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements.\u201d<\/p>\n
And because Trump is, well, Trump, he couldn\u2019t help but conclude his tweet with a sense of bizarre urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, NOW! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nOver the past two days, Apple and Attorney General William Barr have issued conflicting statements regarding Apple\u2019s efforts to help the FBI access information on Alshamrani\u2019s iPhones. Barr recently claimed that Apple hasn\u2019t provided any \u201csubstantive assistance\u201d on the matter, a claim which Apple vehemently denies.<\/p>\n
Apple\u2019s response to Barr\u2019s allegation reads in part:<\/p>\n
\nWe reject the characterization that Apple has not provided substantive assistance in the Pensacola investigation. Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cWe responded to each request promptly, often within hours, sharing information with FBI offices in Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York. The queries resulted in many gigabytes of information that we turned over to investigators. In every instance, we responded with all of the information that we had.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The FBI presumably wants what it demanded a few years ago when a similar issue arose with an iPhone 5c which belonged to a terrorist involved in the 2015 San Bernardino shooting. There, the FBI essentially asked Apple to create a custom version of iOS that would allow the FBI to endlessly guess the device\u2019s passcode without initiating a system wipe. Apple flat-out refused and there\u2019s no indication the company plans to change its approach this time around.<\/p>\n
Notably, the devices the FBI wants to access in this particular case include an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 7. That being the case, there\u2019s no reason to believe that the FBI couldn\u2019t access said devices by reaching out to a third-party security company like Cellebrite. In the San Bernardino investigation, if you recall, word ultimately surfaced that the FBI paid around $1 million for a workable iPhone hack.<\/p>\n
\n\tImage Source: Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n