US President Trump attacks Apple for not unlocking iPhone

The US President Donald Trump came to Twitter on Wednesday and lashed out at Apple for not co-operating and refusing to unlock iPhones for law-enforcement.

US President Trump tweeted:

We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements. They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, NOW! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2020

He said in his tweet:

We are helping Apple all of the time on trade and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements.

He continued saying:

They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, ‘NOW! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’,

This is the newest clash between the White House and a tech company over access to data.

This tweet was in response to Apple not unlocking two iPhones that were part of an investigation into a fatal shooting at a naval base in Florida last month.

The incident occurred when three Saudi trainees at opened fire and killed three US Sailors on 6 December, 2019.

US Attorney General William Barr said that Apple failed to provide assistance in the case however, Apple rejected the claim saying:

Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing,

This is the second time something like this has happened. Back in 2015, there was a mass shooting in California where 14 people killed and 22 injured and Apple back then refused to unlock the shooters iPhone.

Although the company provided Gigabytes of data from the shooters iCloud account and helped with the investigation, Apple refused to unlock the iPhone or provide a backdoor to do so.

Since, iPhones are basically used by the general public and they now contain their most sensitive data such as medical and financial records, making a backdoor into them and giving others access would put that private data at risk.

However, the US government reportedly paid another company $1 million to decrypt the device.

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