A court order the US government requested to force Apple to unlock an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino shooting rampage is about “the victims and justice,” FBI Director James Comey said, reports AFP from Washington.
In his first public remarks since Apple CEO Tim Cook said he would fight the federal magistrate’s order, Comey said the Justice Department’s request is simply about gaining access to the locked phone. “We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land,” Comey said in a posting that appeared on the lawfareblog.org site late Sunday. Investigators want to hack into an iPhone belonging to the late Syed Farook, a US citizen who along with his wife Tashfeen Malik went on a shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people on Dec 2. Apple claims that cooperating with the FBI probe would undermine overall security for its devices.