Apple to FBI: Go Ask the NSA [telecom]

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Apple Lambasts the FBI for Not Asking the NSA to Help Hack That iPhone

by Kim Zetter

IN THE SHOWDOWN between Apple and the Justice Department over an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects, one question has loomed large. Why hasn't the FBI sought assistance from the National Security Agency - which employs some of the nation's top hackers to crack into the iPhone? Apple has touched on that question lightly in other briefs filed in the case, but today it focused on it more extensively in its latest brief submitted to the court.

"The government does not deny that there may be other agencies in the government that could assist it in unlocking the phone and accessing its data; rather, it claims, without support, that it has no obligation to consult other agencies," Apple wrote, noting that FBI Director James Comey danced around the question of NSA assistance when asked about it during a recent congressional hearing.