The article very clearly says Apple has complied 70 times before!
Then Edward Snowden changed everything.
Their ability to comply has changed.
Previous versions of the operating system - they deliberately re-wrote the OS and the encryption so they could no longer access the phones when they were locked - in part due to privacy laws in Europe, and in part so that the government could no longer serve THEM with warrants for their customer's data.
That was THEN, This is NOW!
I'll try a shot at a "CLIFF NOTES" answer.
Prior Apple I-Phones, apple was able to do this (get into a phone & Contents.)
The model the court(s) is asking Apple to get / give access to the FBI, or what ever 3 Lettered Agency. Has two problems as from what I heard explained today via the radio, via Rush.
PROBLEM No.#:1, Access to the general I-Phone it self, via the "TIME LOCK(s,)" something like you get four or five tries, then the first of many (TIME LOCK(s)) kicks in, I believe something like three or four minutes, and escalates from each "UNSUCCESSFUL Attempt" there after.
PROBLEM No.#:2, Access to the "CONTENT'S," after your able to "OPEN" the I-PHONE, then your going to need the "Encryption KEY(s)."
"Encryption KEY No.#:1," i.e., or think I-Phone No.#:1, the sender, of a message.
"Encryption KEY No.#:2," i.e.,or think I-Phone No.#:2, the receiver, of a message.
Yes Rush said a Person working for Law Enforcement could write the "CODE" so that the I-Phone would not use the "Time LOCK(s)," but if Apple won't "SIGN" the code, the phone will just lock itself, by default for "SECURITY."
Hope this helps out.
Different circumstances. For example the New York case involved an iPhone 4S, a Model two versions before the iPhone 5C involved in the San Bernardino case. The 4S was running iOS 7, it's original operating system, but the 5C from the terrorist case was running the latest, most secure iOS 9.2. Two very different versions, one of which has unbreakable encryption. The other no encryption at all.
But in a legal brief, Apple acknowledged that the phone in the (NY) meth case was running version 7 of the iPhone operating system, which means the company can access it. “For these devices, Apple has the technical ability to extract certain categories of unencrypted data from a passcode locked iOS device,†the company said in a court brief.
Basically all of the 70 previous cases involved active prosecutions of criminals with pending cases. . . and older iPhones with older versions of iOS without encryption.
Since Apple updated the operating system with iOS 8, iPhones are all encrypted to a 256 AES standard to which the owner creates his or her own KEYs, and Apple does not have any access to at all. In fact, Apple never knows the key, ever. Therefore Apple cannot unlock any of those iPhones, essentially all iPhones from the Apple iPhone 5S, 5C, onward.
Hardware and software changed.