DOJ wants Apple to unlock iPhones Nine More

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is demanding help Apple 's in the release of at least nine iPhones across the country, as well as phones used by one of the San Bernardino, California, attackers ..

The disclosure appears to reinforce the societal concerns that the dispute could threaten the control of encryption security that goes far beyond the individual case California.

Apple is fighting the government's demands in at least seven of the nine cases, Marc J. Zwillinger, a lawyer for the company, said in a letter unsealed in federal court Tuesday.

"Apple has not committed to performing any service on devices" Zwillinger wrote. Since December, the letter says, Apple has a number of opposed efforts of the Department of Justice cases to force their cooperation through a 1789 statute known as the Law all the commandments, which says courts can require actions to comply with their orders.

In the case of San Bernardino, prosecutors have been demands for Apple to help them unlock the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook - one of the attackers on the rampage December in which 14 people died - as a limited effort in response an unusual situation.

Still, "no one should be surprised that we are investigating other cases and for help in those other cases," a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

From challenging the demand for a judge in the case of San Bernardino, which calls for Apple to create a special tool to help researchers more easily crack the password of the phone, the company has repeatedly stated that this measure could not be done in isolation.

"Once created, the technique could be used again and again, on any number of devices," Apple chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, said in a letter to customers. And in a note on its website on Monday, Apple said that the police throughout the country "have hundreds of iPhones Apple looking to unlock if the FBI has been here."

Apple has long maintained that it would deliver the data to comply with a court order when it was technically able to do so. In a report on the first six months of 2015, Apple said it had received about 11,000 requests from government agencies around the world to obtain information on approximately 60,000 devices, and provided some information in about 7,100 cases.

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