Trump increases pressure on Apple group on iPhone backdoors

Nevertheless, the company is refusing to give the authorities access to encrypted phones "used by murderers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements". Trump's demand to those responsible at the company: "You must rise to the challenge now and help our great country!"

Apple had previously rejected criticism from US Attorney General William Barr in the reignited dispute. Barr had said on Monday that Apple had provided "no substantial assistance" in investigating the attack by a Saudi officer on a naval air base in Florida in December. He urged the company to override the password protection of two of the assassin's iPhones. Apple categorically refuses to open these and other back doors for law enforcement to gain access to data that may be relevant to the investigation. The company argues that this would worsen data security for all users.

Apple Group provided information

Barr categorized the attack, in which three US soldiers were killed, as a terrorist attack, increasing the pressure on Apple. "It is very important to know who and what the shooter was communicating with before he died," said the US minister.

Apple replied that it had provided "a wide range of information" within hours of the first FBI request on December 6. In the days that followed, Apple provided backups stored in the iCloud storage service and communication data for several accounts, among other things. While access to an encrypted iPhone is only possible with a passcode, the key for iPhone backups stored in the cloud is also stored there. This means they can be decrypted by the authorities. Particularly sensitive information such as health data, passwords or payment data is also encrypted end-to-end in the cloud and is therefore only accessible to users.

Apple emphasized that it was only informed of the existence of a second iPhone by the FBI a month later, on January 6. The assassin had shot into one of the devices.(SDA)