Apple should have quietly offered to help (or complied with a subpoena), put a few pointy heads on this, hopefully provided information, and then have been done with it.
I get Apple’s concern of enabling a backdoor to the device, and if I were an iPhone user would appreciate the knowing apps such as banking were as secure as possible. Apple however is failing to acknowledge that a terrorist organization declared war on America and we’re taking casualties. Lives lost just a few hours downstate - you would think that would resonate in some meaningful way with Apple.
IMO, Apple’s failure to cooperate is a concise declaration of their unwillingness to stand with America against terrorism.
They are not going to quietly offer to help. Firstly, the government is asking for more than help. They want hacking software to be written for them. And its not just to let them in. Its to make it easier and faster access. Also, this is just one prosecutor. There are tens of thousands more. Where does it stop. They want a law. Or a real court to watch over this. Not some little California judge.
If Apple gives the government access, the terrorists will simply move to software encryption on top of the iPhone security, they are not stupid, but 99% of citizen users will not bother to do that.
Getting the data from one phone will just give the government access to all phones which is the real reason for this demand by our kindly government.
I remember when PGP was announced, government worrywarts wanted to shut it down and make unbreakable encryption illegal.
True to form the same government that imports all these terrorists now complains that they can't track them without the tech industries help. How about not bringing them here?
Apple IS assisting within reason. They however refuse to build a backdoor into the iPhone which can be used on ANY iPhone as well as this one. . . which is what it would take to actually get into it.