Apple Denies Not Providing 'Substantive Assistance' to the FBI in the Pensacola Investigation

The FBI asked for Apple's help in unlocking the iPhone of a suspected Flordia shooter last calendar week. Earlier today, US Attorney Full general William Barr said that Apple tree had denied the asking and openly criticized the company for non providing it with any noun help. Apple has now issued an official statement nigh the matter.

The company says that it refutes statements of it not providing any substantive aid in the Pensacola investigation to the FBI. It says information technology responded to the FBI requests within hours and in many cases, it shared gigabytes of information with investigators.

Apple has shared a lengthy argument about the entire outcome, though never does information technology mention once that it will help the FBI in unlocking the iPhone of the shooters. The company reiterates that its products do not have a backdoor and that information technology feels encryption is necessary to protect the country and users' information.

If anything, it looks like Apple tree and the FBI will over again be battling it out over creating backdoors in iPhones so that it tin can be used by law enforcement agencies in such cases. The last fourth dimension this happened was in 2022 when the FBI ultimately ended upwardly paying professional person hackers to unlock the iPhone 5c of the shooter.

Below is Apple tree'south statement about the affair in total:

We were devastated to learn of the tragic terrorist assault on members of the US armed services at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida on December 6th. We take the greatest respect for police enforcement and routinely work with police force across the state on their investigations. When police force enforcement requests our assist, our teams work around the clock to provide them with the data we have.

We reject the characterization that Apple tree has not provided substantive assist in the Pensacola investigation. Our responses to their many requests since the attack take been timely, thorough and are ongoing.

Within hours of the FBI'south starting time request on Dec 6th, we produced a broad diversity of information associated with the investigation. From December 7th through the 14th, we received six additional legal requests and in response provided information including iCloud backups, business relationship data and transactional data for multiple accounts.

We responded to each request promptly, oft within hours, sharing information with FBI offices in Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York. The queries resulted in many gigabytes of information that we turned over to investigators. In every instance, we responded with all of the information that nosotros had.

The FBI only notified us on Jan 6th that they needed additional assistance — a month after the assault occurred. Only then did we learn about the existence of a second iPhone associated with the investigation and the FBI'southward inability to access either iPhone. It was non until January 8th that we received a amendment for data related to the second iPhone, which we responded to within hours. Early on outreach is critical to accessing information and finding additional options.

We are continuing to work with the FBI, and our technology teams recently had a call to provide boosted technical aid. Apple has cracking respect for the Agency's piece of work, and we volition work tirelessly to help them investigate this tragic set on on our nation.

We take e'er maintained there is no such matter as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can too be exploited past those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. Today, law enforcement has access to more than data than ever before in history, and so Americans do not take to cull betwixt weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our land and our users' data.