Skip to main content

Department of Justice files motion to force Apple to comply with FBI iPhone backdoor request

iPhone passcode

The Apple vs FBI encryption clash continues to ramp up, with the Department of Justice filing a motion today to force Apple to comply with the FBI’s request and make custom iPhone firmware that would let the FBI brute-force into an iPhone related to the San Bernardino attacks, via CNBC.

Although tech giants are generally taking Apple’s side on the matter, with the iPhone backdoor seen as a ‘dangerous precedent’, this is the first time the DoJ has entered the conversation and it is clearly not on Apple’s side.

Via the New York Times, the Justice Department claimed Apple’s refusal to cooperate was driven by marketing concerns and its public branding.

It said that Apple’s refusal to help unlock the phone for the F.B.I. “appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy,” rather than a legal rationale.

The court has given Apple an additional three days to reply to the order, so the world anxiously awaits Apple’s next move in the case due on February 26th. The DoJ’s position means Apple will have more groups to battle, if it decides to uphold its stance of resisting the backdoor request. See the filing, in full, here.

Read Tim Cook’s original open letter about this issue from earlier in the week. It has since come to light that it was the FBI who forced the issue into the public eye; Apple had filed court orders to keep the issue private.

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

To recap, the FBI wants Apple to make special firmware for the suspect’s iPhone that will remove the normal 1 hour delay between multiple PIN attempts. This will then allow the FBI to try every possible 4-digit PIN combination in order to brute-force entry into the device and retrieve the encrypted data. Apple says this is just the beginning and the precedent set here would let the government encroach further into user privacy over time.

The iPhone in the current case is an iPhone 5c, which lacks a fingerprint sensor or a Secure Enclave for additional security. However, Apple has said that the same technique the FBI wants to employ could be applied to Apple’s newer iPhones as well.

More coverage of the Apple/FBI case:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. applenthusiast - 8 years ago

    “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” – Thomas Jefferson

  2. viciosodiego - 8 years ago

    So the “government of the people” is turning into a dictatorship.
    If you don’t do as you’re told, I will force you to do it anyway.

    • Jake Becker - 8 years ago

      That is the basis of law, in fact. Everyone seems to love it til it doesn’t go their way………

    • Graham Banzer - 8 years ago

      it was always a dictatorship of do as we say or be imprisoned / “have a mysterious tragic accident which cannot be explained”

      anyone who believes they are now, or have ever been free, is purely delusional. the FBI, DoJ and CIA have proven this numerous times but people don’t really think about it in depth.

  3. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    Apple is not only in the right but is also bigger than the US government. USA will lose this.

    • Aunty T (@AuntyTroll) - 8 years ago

      Apple is bigger than the US government? Did you keep a straight face when you typed that?

      • Spencer Balensiefer - 8 years ago

        Apple makes more money than the US government–how’s that?

      • Leonson Stapleton - 8 years ago

        go back a few articles… i think it was in 2014 apple had enough IN hand cash to pay bail the govt out of debt… and still a shit load over seas. when one company has enough money to pay off all this countries financial debt thats a big deal.

    • Tessellator - 8 years ago

      The US government is ~19 Trillion in debt, no company has that kind of money on hand. As a matter of fact if you sold even asset Apple had and combined that with all their cash, including overseas holdings, you couldn’t even put a dent in the US debt. (apples total assets are just shy of 300billion)
      Its a sad fact that in the last 15 years the US has become a “debtor nation”

  4. iSRS - 8 years ago

    Do people STILL think this is about ONE iPhone used by a terrorist? Please, people, wake up!! This was brought to the courts by the FBI. Preventing Apple from it’s right to respond in court, and to utilize the appeals process if needed, is not something we should accept.

  5. srgmac - 8 years ago

    This is not about ISIS, terrorism, or this one phone.
    It’s also NOT about a backdoor; but it could lead to a forced one in the future.
    Think about this for a moment – US gov. makes it a law to force Apple to put in iOS backdoor.
    Chinese \ Russian \ Whatever government that has a near unlimited budget and state sponsored hackers on payroll figures out how to access the US forced backdoor. Eventually, criminal cartels around the world gain access to this information.
    A US Congressman who’s on an intelligence committee uses an iPhone.
    An American CEO who owns a company that just made a breakthrough in weapons research uses an iPhone.
    A DEA ASAC who’s leading an investigation on a Mexican drug and human trafficking cartel uses an iPhone.
    Do I really have to go any further with this thought experiment?

    • A true back door would likely doom the iPhone as a viable product in many parts of the world, maybe even the entire world. Apple needs to come out on top here for all Apple customers and shareholders, let alone any privacy conscious citizen of any country on Earth.

  6. Screw this fascism. This is serious something to protest. The government is creating excuse after excuse to bypass simple civil rights.

    • vreedy - 8 years ago

      I said yesterday that this wasn’t a GOP or Dem issue. This is Obama’s justice dept now joining the mix as well as a GOP senator trying to draft legislation to make this possible. This is a we the people vs our government issue. It needs to be stopped in its tracks.

  7. srgmac - 8 years ago

    “The FBI is creating a world where citizens rely on #Apple to defend their rights, rather than the other way around.” – Ed Snowden

  8. 16bwhitt - 8 years ago

    Longtime reader of 9to5, first time commenter. I am outraged by our government’s decisions. Seeing the DOJ is now involved with this, I am wondering what I, as an American Citizen, can do to voice my opinion about the concern. I have signed the petition. Would contacting the DOJ and White House (online forms) be a good outlet? I am in full support of Apple here.

  9. viciosodiego - 8 years ago

    I have to wunder, why is the FBI not taking Tim into custody?

  10. jerjuan (@jerjuan) - 8 years ago

    How in the world is the even remotely legal???

  11. boccabella - 8 years ago

    What happens if Apple is forced to comply and their engineers simply cannot unlock the phone?

  12. jerjuan (@jerjuan) - 8 years ago

    So what if it’s about financials, Apple is a for Profit company! What happens if Apple loses sales, market share etc, because people abandon their products, should they be forced or comply with such an order? Is the government going to reimburse them for losses? If so, that is most certainly taxpayer money! So we not only loose our rights to privacy and property rights, but we also get stuck with the bill???

    Each and every elected official supporting this should have their information published, so that we can remember this come election time!

  13. Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

    Let’s say that Apple technically can’t hack into the current OS that’s loaded onto their device. Even if they updated the software with new software to create a backdoor, they still can’t even get the new OS updated on a device where the user isn’t alive to perform the OS update. I don’t know why the FBI just didn’t make a rubber finger to at least unlock the device if it has a fingerprint scanner. Did the not think of that?

  14. hodar0 - 8 years ago

    I tend to look at the complete lack of responsibility the Gov’t has in this mess.
    Consider, a Gov’t employee is on a Terror watch list; yet is mysteriously “NOT WATCHED”.
    This Gov’t employee is issued a Gov’t phone, which is mysteriously “NOT WATCHED”
    This Gov’t iPhone is not locked, so the Gov’t employee is free to set the passcode to whatever he wants, and is able to turn off iCloud backups.
    This Gov’t employee, who is allegedly on a Terrorist Watch List, flies to a known Terrorist Sponsoring Country
    This Gov’t employee, in a Terrorist Sponsoring Country, marries a woman, who is also on a Terrorist Watch List
    Both Terrorist Suspects, both on Terrorist Watch Lists manage to board commercial airlines, fly back into the USA, and sail through US Customs.
    This Gov’t employee, is on a Terrorist Watch List, flew to a Terrorist country, married another terrorist, came back to the USA with her, and is back to work
    This Gov’t employee is still using his Gov’t phone, and no one is monitoring him
    This Gov’t employee and his terrorist wife go on a Killing Spree, slaughtering 14 Americans

    And there is no freaking way this could have possibly have been detected, or so we are told.

    And now, months after he is dead – somehow this is all Apple’s fault.

    Did I miss any key points?

    Exactly, what is the NSA supposedly doing with the Terrorist Watch List, and all the Terrorists that they are supposed to be watching? I don’t see how invading the privacy of every Apple customer on the planet will help them find a terrorist, when they can’t manage to track the ones that are identified to them, and are working for the US Gov’t on a daily basis.

  15. jerjuan (@jerjuan) - 8 years ago

    With this case in mind (I realize it doesn’t directly apply), am I the only person who would like to know the fix for “Error 53”?

    If Error 53 was the result of a security feature to detect unauthorized hardware changes that may allow security to be bypassed, what “fix” has Apple applied that doesn’t now allow security to be bypassed?

  16. Robert - 8 years ago

    The DOJ claims this is a “marketing strategy” but wait… Apple file a court request to keep this matter private. This fact proves it is not a marketing strategy. This accusation will hopefully come back and bite the DOJ in court.

    • flaviosuave - 8 years ago

      I’m completely on Apple’s side in this, but your reasoning is flawed. Apple filed a court request to keep the matter private so that, in the event they did lose and had to comply, this would not be public information and Apple would not lose anything vis-a-vis its image as a company keeping your data secure from hackers/the NSA/etc. When that failed, then Tim Cook wrote the open letter and pushed it into the news as a way to perpetuate Apple’s image as doing its best to fight for user privacy. I think it’s principle rather than a marketing strategy, but Apple’s health as a company would also always factor into a decision Tim would make.

  17. paulfj - 8 years ago

    I’m not one to give money to causes, and I think Apple likely has a significant war chest. But, in this case, I think I’d do what I could to help Apple. Does the government a) not realize or b) not care how this is being perceived by the majority of Americans who are aware it’s going on? Yes, I realize the answer in most cases is the latter.

  18. Ryan Harris - 8 years ago

    so fbi needs to hand phone over to someone at apple. then they can unlock and give phone back.

    • Leonson Stapleton - 8 years ago

      if you work for apple most likely you believe in what they stand for. i dont think any employee at this point would even assist the FBI with this BS

  19. David Griffith - 8 years ago

    Our take:
    In 1755 Benjamin Franklin wrote “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” With a government mandated backdoor we’ll be giving liberty to the bad guys and sacrificing our safety based not on Apple’s “marketing strategy” but on the government’s.

    https://articles.azstec.com/encryption-backdoor-battle-government-sues-apple/

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.