Justice US considers possibility to request source code in iPhone case
A footnote in a legal document shows that the US government is willing to request the source code and signing key of Apple’s software. This would allow the government to gain access to the iPhone of one of the gunmen in San Bernardino.
Sources involved in the case have told Reuters that the Justice Department has no immediate plans to actually request the source code. Apple would also not be concerned about this happening and will not respond to the threat at Tuesday’s hearing. Still, the inclusion of the footnote provides insight into the US government’s strategy, according to Reuters, and can always be used if the case goes to the highest court, as expected.
In the legal document citing the potential request, government attorneys state that so far no request has been made to request the source code from Apple, because the move “would not be to the liking” of the company. However, if Apple wants to go down this road, the lawyers argue, it would offer a solution that would require less work from the company.
Reuters also says that there is no directly comparable case in which the source code of software has been requested from a company. The closest is the Edward Snowden and Lavabit case. Snowden was using the company’s encrypted email service, and the government wanted access to his unencrypted communications. A court order was then issued to Lavabit, asking for a key to intercept Snowden’s e-mail traffic. However, Lavabit did not comply with the request and preferred to close its doors. It is therefore questionable whether a request to Apple would be successful.
Should the FBI get their hands on the source code, the organization will hold “the keys to the kingdom,” attorney Jesse Binnall told Reuters. With this data, the government could write its own spy software. The iPhone case began when Apple refused to cooperate with the FBI’s request in February to access the phone of an attacker who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.