FBI Director James Comey admitted on March 1, Tuesday that the federal bureau made a mistake when it changed the Apple ID password of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c. The United States House Judiciary Committee asked Comey during a hearing about the issue of encryption. A committee member asked if the FBI had considered it would be unable to get a backup of the mobile device of Syed Farook by changing the account's password.
Comey revealed that during the 24 hours after the terrorist shooting the FBI requested the county to change the iCloud account's password, according to Re/Code. That made backing up the phone difficult.
This was the first time the FBI admitted it had messed up. However, Comey also pointed out security experts state that a backup of the iPhone device would not have provided all the data investigators wanted to get from the smartphone.
Apple has argued that error had caused the current battle with the FBI. The federal agency has issued a court order asking Apple to write code to hack its phone so the FBI can access the data stored on the phone including contact information of the California shooter.
In the past the FBI explained that changing the password allowed it to view past backups of the device, but the last backup was six weeks before the December 2 shooting attack.
Apple had advised the FBI to connect the iPhone to a power source so it would link to a wireless network and make a new backup. However, changing the phone's password prevented the FBI from doing that.
In another Apple case versus the FBI a federal judge ruled on February 29, Monday that the FBI's request that Apple hack an iPhone 5s of a drug dealer is implausible. The ruling was made by US judge James Orenstein.
The drug dealer had already pleaded guilty, but the Department of Justice (DoJ) asked Apple be required to unlock the mobile device. It tried to make a stronger argument through a 227-year-old law known as the All Writs Act (AWA), according to The Guardian. However, Orenstein stated AWA cannot be used to force tech companies to hack their own products.