The US Justice Department just slammed Apple's stance on iPhone security

Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a document on Thursday attacking Apple for "false" and "corrosive" rhetoric.

Apple and the FBI will face each other in court later this month to fight about whether the tech giant must write code to help federal agents break into San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Farook's iPhone.

Apple has argued that following the government's order would create a backdoor to millions of other devices.

The DOJ brief says that that argument isn't right:

The Court's Order is modest. It applies to a single iPhone, and it allows Apple to decide the least burdensome means of complying. As Apple well knows, the Order does not compel it to unlock other iPhones or to give the government a universal "master key" or "back door." It is a narrow, targeted order that will produce a narrow, targeted piece of software capable of running on just one iPhone, in the security of Apple's corporate headquarters. That iPhone belongs to the County of San Bernardino, which has consented to its being searched. The phone was used by the now-dead terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, who also consented to its being searched as part of his employment agreement with the County. In short, the Order invades no one's privacy and raises no Fourth Amendment concerns.

The agency's lawyers write that it would take as few as six of Apple's 100,000 employees fewer than two weeks to get the job done, and would provide no undue burden on the company. Further, the attorneys claim that the problem exists only because Apple built "warrant-proof" phones for marketing reasons.

You can read the full document here:

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