San Bernardino Victims Want Apple to Hack into Shooter's iPhone
The lawyer of San Bernardino victims announced they would be taking action in support of the FBI's efforts to crack shooter's phone.
A battle over privacy erupted when Apple said it would not create a backdoor to hack into the locked iPhone of Syed Farook. He was one of two shooters who on December 2, 2015, in San Bernardino, killed 14 people and seriously injured 22 others. Groups like Fight for the Future and the ACLU are organizing protests in at least 30 cities this Tuesday against the FBI’s mandate that Apple crack Farook’s phone. As it turns out, a lawyer representing the victims announced that they are filing a legal brief supporting the FBI’s efforts.
The lawyer, Stephen Larson, told Reuters that they want even more info than the Justice Department is looking into as a criminal investigation. “They were targeted by terrorists, and they need to know why, how this could happen,” Larson told the media outlet. He would not, however, say how many victims he was representing, but that he is working for them for free. He also said he’d be filing an amicus brief by March.
Yesterday, San Bernardino County stirred the pot by tweeting, “The County was working cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at the FBI’s request.” This act made it impossible for Apple to hack into the phone. There are some theories on why the FBI did this.
Naturally, this action kind of puts Apple and those in support of the company’s position in a weird place. The feds are looking like the good guys right about about now. Apple will file legal arguments on Friday against the DOJ.
Both Apple and the DOJ declined to comment on this as of Sunday.
