Apple refuses to unlock San Bernadino attacker's iPhone

Apple was doing its best to uphold its image of security on Wednesday, announcing it would contest a court order to help investigators access data on the iPhone belonging to San Bernadino attacker Syen Rizwan Farook.

The tech giant was ordered to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation break through security software on the phone, which the FBI asserted contained information crucial to their investigation.

"The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers," said Apple chief executive Tim Cook.

"We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand."

Apple began encrypting data on its devices - including text messages, photographs, contacts and call logs - by default in 2014.

Because it was end-to-end encryption, any data on a phone remained inaccessible unless it was viewed on the device itself.

If a device was locked, the user would need to enter their passcode to access data. If the wrong passcode was entered ten times, the data on the phone would self-destruct.

Apple confirmed that even its own staff could not access a locked iPhone

The FBI wanted Apple to assist it in breaking into Farook's iPhone by sheer brute force, by creating two pieces of software. The first would alter the device so investigators could make unlimited attempts at entering the passcode, without putting the data at risk.

It also wanted Apple to create a way to rapidly try different passcode combinations, so it could try out every combination rapidly until stumbling upon the correct one, unlocking the phone and the data.

Farook used a four digit passcode, which resulted in 10,000 possible passcode combinations.

"The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation," said Cook.

"The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers."

Cook said opposing the order was not something the company took lightly, but he felt the need to speak up in the face of what he saw as an overreach by the US government.

"We have no sympathy for terrorists," he stated.

Farook and his wife killed 14 people in San Bernadino, California last December before being fatally shot by police.