The Justice Department on Thursday filed its latest argument in the dispute with Apple over access to a locked iPhone, accusing Apple of "false" rhetoric and "overblown" fears in its public refusal to cooperate with a court order.
Apple is fighting a federal magistrate judge's order to write special software that would lift security features that prevent the FBI from cracking the passcode on the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has argued that would amount to creating a master key to millions of other iPhones.
"Far from being a master key, the software simply disarms a booby trap affixed to one door: Farook's," the lawyers write in response, calling the wide-spanning security concerns a "diversion" on Apple's part.
"Apple desperately wants — desperately needs — this case not to be about one isolated iPhone ... Apple deliberately raised technological barriers that now stand between a lawful warrant and an iPhone containing evidence related to the terrorist mass murder of 14 Americans," the lawyers write.
The Justice Department echoes FBI Director James Comey's argument that growing adoption of strong encryption was creating "warrantproof" devices, arguing that the order from the magistrate judge was narrow and targeted.