[Infowarrior] - Feds move to postpone iPhone hearing

[Richard Forno]

Feds move to postpone iPhone hearing

By Jack Shafer

Apple has claimed the government's request for assistance would potentially harm all its users. | AP Photo

The Justice Department may not need Apple's help any longer.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/feds-move-to-cancel-iphone-hearing-221062

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Citing new leads about how to access an iPhone used by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, the Justice Department on Monday asked to postpone a court hearing set for Tuesday on whether Apple should be forced to help the FBI break into that device. Their request was granted.

For months, government lawyers have insisted they needed Apple to write special software so that the FBI could bypass the security features on the iPhone being used by the San Bernardino shooter, Syed Farook, and obtain information critical to their ongoing terrorism investigation.

But the Justice Department unexpectedly told the court just hours before a scheduled hearing that it may not need to force Apple’s assistance after all under a little-known law, the All Writs Act, a move that Apple and the rest of Silicon Valley had said would threaten the privacy and security rights of all smartphone owners.

"On Sunday, March 20, 2016, an outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking Farook's iPhone," federal prosecutors said in a filing Monday afternoon. "Testing is required to determine whether it is a viable method that will not compromise data on Farook's iPhone. If the method is viable, it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple Inc. ("Apple") set forth in the All Writs Act Order in this case."

"Accordingly, to provide time for testing the method, the government hereby requests that the hearing set for March 22, 2016 be vacated," government lawyers wrote.

Earlier Monday, though, Apple CEO Tim Cook had affirmed his company’s intent to fight this and other cases where the government seeks greater access to digital data. As he unveiled his company’s latest iPhone, Cook pledged on stage in San Francisco that Apple would not “shirk from [its] responsibility” to protect its users.

In the San Bernardino case, the Justice Department asked a federal magistrate in February to require Apple to write special code to help unlock Farook’s password-protected iPhone. Apple doesn’t retain a copy of device passwords, and its iPhone is programmed to erase itself after too many failed attempts to unlock it — so the DOJ wanted the company craft special software to remove the restriction.

Federal Magistrate Sheri Pym initially sided with the DOJ in February, drawing a sharp rebuke from Apple, which lambasted the government’s request as a digital “backdoor.” In the eyes of the tech company, a win for the government would set a dangerous legal precedent, allowing the Justice Department unparalleled access to all digital communications in other major national security investigations. Apple argued Congress never gave law enforcement such power, and doing so now would only encourage foreign governments to seek the same access in the future.

The legal battle — marked by bitter rhetoric from both sides — quickly encompassed the whole of Silicon Valley. Top firms like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft filed legal briefs with the court, urging the judge not to embolden the FBI as it seeks greater access to data it can't currently intercept or decipher — a problem its director has called “going dark.” And both Apple and the Justice Department seemed to indicate they would continue fighting the case for as long as necessary, setting up an historic war between Washington and Silicon Valley.

But security experts long have suggested the FBI might be able to extract the phone's contents by other means. FBI Director James Comey had been grilled about a potential technical solution by lawmakers like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) during his appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss the case earlier this month.

The DOJ did not specify in its court filing Monday, however, exactly how it planned to obtain the contents of the San Bernardino device.

"As a result of these efforts, an outside party demonstrated to the FBI this past weekend a possible method for unlocking the phone," a DOJ spokeswoman said in a statement. "We must first test this method to ensure that it doesn’t destroy the data on the phone, but we remain cautiously optimistic. That is why we asked the court to give us some time to explore this option."


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