Ahead of the hearing due to be held on 22 March, the Justice Department has lashed out at Apple in its latest response to the company's refusal to unlock the San Bernardino iPhone. Playing an emotional game, the DoJ says "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."
It says that only Apple is able to remove the barriers that are currently in the way, "and it can do so without undue burden". Apple has already made it abundantly clear that it will not help the FBI in creating what it describes as a backdoor into the iPhone at the center of the case.
The FBI has present Apple with a number of options for assisting with gaining access to data held on the phone. From allowing removing the auto-erase function from the phone to building a custom version of iOS for the handset, all of the FBI's request have been met with refusal. In its
response, the Justice Department says:
By Apple's own reckoning, the corporation -- which grosses hundreds of billions of dollars a year -- would need to set aside as few as six of its 100,000 employees for perhaps as little as two weeks.
