FBI wants Apple’s help again to unlock iPhone

The US FBI has again turned to Apple for help with unlocking an iPhone. It concerns two phones belonging to a man who shot and killed three people at an air force base in December. Apple has not yet responded to the request.

The U.S. Federal Police Department sent a letter to Apple earlier this week, NBC News reports. FBI wants help unlocking Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani’s two iPhones. He shot and killed three soldiers at a Pensacola Air Force Base, Florida, in December. Alshamrani was later shot and killed himself. The FBI now wants access to his phones to determine the motive behind the killing. They also want to search the phones ‘because of an abundance of caution’. It is not known which iPhones are involved, or which versions of iOS are involved.

The FBI itself has tried to unlock the phones by trying different passwords. All of those didn’t work. The police would therefore have sent a letter to Apple asking for help to unlock the devices. It would be extra difficult to do that with one of the telephones, because it was hit by a bullet during the attack itself.

Apple said in a response to NBC that it is cooperating with the investigation. The company does not specifically talk about unlocking the phone. “We have great respect for the investigative services and have always cooperated with investigations. When the FBI asked us for help in this case last month, we gave them all the data we had in our possession.” A judge has given the FBI permission to search the phones.

The FBI became embroiled in a legal battle with Apple a few years ago. The police then wanted to unlock the phone of the San Bernardino terrorist, but Apple refused. Later, the FBI managed to unlock the phones with the help of a third party. Who that is has never been revealed. It is suspected that it is an Israeli security company.