LOS ANGELES — A federal judge ordered Apple on Tuesday to help the FBI access encrypted data hidden on a cellphone that belonged to the terrorist couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year.
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge ordered Apple on Tuesday to help the FBI access encrypted data hidden on a cellphone that belonged to the terrorist couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year.
The federal investigation into the terror attack has been largely focused on determining the couple’s movements between the time of the attack at the Inland Regional Center the morning of Dec. 2 and their deaths in a wild firefight with police hours later.
Last month, the FBI released a detailed timeline of their actions after the shooting, but the agency asked for the public’s help in filling in an 18-minute blind spot.
The three-page court order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in Riverside directs Apple to help the FBI get around the phone’s passcode protection any auto-erase functions the device might employ.
U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker submitted a 40-page motion asking for Apple’s assistance earlier in the day.
“The government has been unable to complete the search because it cannot access the iPhone’s encrypted content,” the motion read. “Apple has the exclusive technical means which would assist the government in completing its search, but has declined to provide that assistance voluntarily.”
The device, an iPhone5, was given to Syed Rizwan Farook by the San Bernardino County Health Department and used in his job as an inspector, according to the motion.
Calls and emails seeking comment from Apple were not immediately returned, but it is the tech giant’s policy to require law enforcement to obtain search warrants or subpoenas before aiding in investigations.
The health department gave the FBI consent to search the phone, according to the motion, but the agency has been unable to bypass the phone’s passcode lock for fear its operating system would destroy all data on the phone after 10 failed attempts.
In its motion, the FBI said Apple should be able to turn off the device’s auto erase functions, allowing the government to submit “test passcodes” to the phone without the risk of destroying the data it seeks. The motion said that Apple routinely complies with law enforcement when presented with a search warrant or judicial order.
The phone stopped sending backup information to the iCloud server on Oct. 19, 2015, according to the government’s motion, and the FBI believes Farook may have disabled that function in order to hide evidence. Any communications or data linked to the shooting after Oct. 19 would be accessible only through the device, according to the motion.
Farook also used the phone to converse with Malik after that date, court records show.
Investigators are hoping the data on the phone will help answer several questions that have persisted after the shooting. It remains unclear why Farook left a bag with several pipe bombs in the conference room where he and his wife opened fire, why the bombs were not detonated, of if the couple were plotting other attacks.
The FBI has also been trying to determine whether the couple received any additional help in plotting and carrying out the attacks. Enrique Marquez Jr., a longtime friend of Farook accused of buying two rifles used in the shootings, has been arrested and charged with providing material support for terrorists and other crimes. He has pleaded not guilty.
Location data on the phone, among other pieces of information, could also help investigators answer questions about the couple’s movements during an 18-minute blind spot in the FBI’s timeline of their actions after the shooting.
FBI Director James B. Comey first revealed the agency’s struggles to access the phone data while speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.
Several cellphone models, including Apple’s iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S6, use advanced encryption algorithms that scramble all the data on the device when a pin code is set.
Encrypted cellphones and text messaging apps have made it harder for investigators and intelligence services to track suspected plots in real time, or trace locations and connections once they acquire a suspect’s device, Comey said.
Apple changed the way it manages phone encryption in September 2014, a move that makes it more difficult for law enforcement to access encrypted data on cellphones, according to Clifford Neuman, director of the University of Southern California’s Center for computer system security. Previously, forensic investigators could tap into a device’s hardware port and gain access to a phone’s data “independent of needing to try passcodes,” he said.
“That path into the device is no longer possible,” Neuman said.