U.S Government Succeeds In Unlocking Shooter’s iPhone, Withdraws Case Against Apple

On Monday, U.S Justice Department had succeeded in unlocking the iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino shooters while withdrawing its legal case against Apple, and ending a month long legal standoff but remains an unsettled issue over encryption.

The sudden disclosure to terminate the battle that had captivated the tech company was a win for Apple, which they forcefully went against court order acquired by the Justice Department in demand to build a backdoor in breaking into the iPhone.

In a statement released on Monday which Apple said, "From the beginning, we objected to the FBI's demand that Apple build a backdoor into the iPhone because we believed it was wrong and would set a dangerous precedent. As a result of the government's dismissal, neither of these occurred. This case should never have been brought."

Although the bigger issue over law enforcement's entry through encrypted data is far from over, as the technology company persist in claims that anything which will assist authorities in bypassing security measures of tech devices is a security threat for everyone. While on the other hand, government officials insist that without obtaining data from the phone could disable the investigation.

The case which the issue implies is the iPhone owned by Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters of the San Bernardino's rampage where 14 people died in December. The shooter was killed during a shootout by police intervention.

After weeks of previous court filings and sworn testimony by the Justice Department in claims that Apple carried the only technical solution in unlocking the shooter's iPhone, where last week's unexpected announcement during a supposed court hearing came to show an unknown third party had introduced an alternative method that could unlock the iPhone without Apple's assistance.

During Monday's court filing, the Justice Department read a two page statement declaring that the government had succeeded in accessing Farook's iPhone data storage, for that reason they no longer need Apple's help.

Apple debated that the government's persistent request in obtaining court orders had gone too far to a point that would allow the courts limitless authority to forcefully order private firms to assist them as their agents especially when it involves digital surveillance and collecting data.

In addition Apple said, "We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along, and we will continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated. This case raised issues which deserve a national conversation about our civil liberties, and our collective security and privacy."

Apple received support from Tech company leaders that involved Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other companies during a filing for legal brief.

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