March 11, 2016•Update: March 22, 2016
NEW YORK
The Justice Department on Thursday called Apple's rhetoric "false" and "corrosive" in a case in which the tech giant was ordered to assist the FBI to unlock an iPhone.
In its filing in a district court in California, the government wrote that the company wore away “the very institutions that are best able to safeguard our liberty and our rights."
The California-based tech giant has refused to aid the FBI's request and a court order to assist federal investigators to unlock an the device believed to belong to Syed Rizwan Farook, a deceased suspect in a deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 victims in December.
Apple said the court order undermines the security and privacy of iPhone users around the world against hackers and unwarranted government surveillance.
However, the Justice Department insisted Thursday that the court order would apply to a single iPhone. "As Apple well knows, the order does not compel it to unlock other iPhones or to give the government a universal “master key” or “back door”.
"Apple deliberately raised technological barriers that now stand between a lawful warrant and an iPhone containing evidence related to the terrorist mass murder of 14 Americans. Apple alone can remove those barriers so that the FBI can search the phone, and it can do so without undue burden," the government said.
In addition, the Justice Department also requested the court deny Apple's motion to vacate the Feb. 16 court order and compel the company to assist the FBI in unlocking the iPhone under scrutiny.
Apple filed a motion Feb. 24 to vacate the court order by saying it violates its constitutional rights.
