Background
On December 2, 2015, 14 people were
killed and 22 others seriously injured in what, President of the
United States, Barack Obama, has deemed a terrorist attack in
California. The attack comprised of a mass shooting and an
attempted bombing. The perpetrators, Syed Rizwan Farook and
Tashfeen Malik attempted to flee the scene, but were killed by
police in a shootout.
On January 5, 2016, the FBI began
investigating the perpetrators. On February 9, 2016, the FBI
announced that it was unable to unlock one of the mobile phones
they recovered from the perpetrators; a county-owned iPhone 5 C
which was found on Farook, due to its advanced security features.
As a result, the FBI approached Apple Incorporated to create a new
version of the phone's operating system (iOS) that could be
installed and run in the phone's random access memory to
disable certain security features. Apple declined citing its policy
to never undermine the security features of its products.
