Carolyn Kaster / AP
The FBI no longer needs Apple's help to access an iPhone used by an alleged drug dealer in Brooklyn, ending yet another legal standoff between the FBI and Apple over locked devices.
"Yesterday evening, an individual provided the passcode to the iPhone at issue in this case," U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers wrote in a letter to the court obtained by BuzzFeed News. "Late last night, the government used that passcode by hand and gained access to the iPhone."
The last minute breakthrough, on the deadline the government had to respond to Apple's challenge, recalls the sudden and unexpected turn of events in San Bernardino, where the Justice Department called off litigation there after an unidentified outside party showed the FBI how to access the device.
The two cases have been at the center of the debate over encryption and the whether or not private companies such as Apple should be legally forced to create or give law enforcement a "back door" to access the devices of its customers.
But as both sides have headed to what seemed to be a court showdown over the debate, the FBI on both occasions has found another, last-minute way.
Privacy experts worry the efforts by the Department of Justice could set a precedent.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for the department disputed the argument, and argued that their letter in the Brooklyn case demonstrated that.
"As we have said previously, these cases have never been about setting a court precedent; they are about law enforcement's ability and need to access evidence on devices pursuant to lawful court orders and search warrants," Emily Pierce, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "In this case, an individual provided the department with the passcode to the locked phone at issue in the Easter District of New York. Because we now have access tot he data we sought, we notified the court of this recent development and have withdrawn our request for assistance."
The department would not identify who provided the passcode.
In Apple's filing last week, in which the iPhone maker formally challenged the Justice Department’s request for a court order, Apple said “The government has made no showing that it has exhausted alternative means for extracting data from the iPhone.”
The company also pointed to the strange turn of events in San Bernardino, in which a mysterious outside party demonstrated to the FBI a viable method to access a locked iPhone at the center of a terrorism investigation there.
The last minute breakthrough in New York, on the deadline the government had to respond to Apple's challenge, recalls the San Bernardino episode once again, in which the Justice Department called off litigation just days before a scheduled courtroom showdown with Apple.
The two sides could again clash over the issue, though.
The Justice Department has asked Apple to extract data from 12 other password-protected phones, including this case. The company has objected in all of them.
LINK: FBI Tells Local Law Enforcement It Will Help Unlock Phones
LINK: Apple And The Feds Prepare For Another Battle Over A Locked iPhone
LINK: DOJ Wants Apple To Extract Data From 12 Other iPhones
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1SW9EM9
No comments:
Post a Comment