Do I have that correct?
No.
The feds have the phone and want Apple to crack it so they (the feds) can access the data.
There’s also the possibility this is all b.s. to get more terrorists to go out and use iPhones with there already being a way to crack them.
YES you do have it correct!! They want Apple to build a back door program to get into the phone. Apple’s problem is that Apple could be hacked themselves while creating this backdoor putting all of their phones at risk!! I would have to side with Apple on this!!! This particular phone was his government work phone it has special encryption that Apple cannot just hack into !!
Correct...
Do I have that correct?
Apparently not. It appears Apple can very well crack that phone, they just don't want to.
The court essentially ordered Apple to break into the iPhone 5C, iOS 9, so that the automatic erasure system would not destroy the data on the device on the tenth attempt at putting in a wrong passcode. Apple says there IS no way around that because it is hard coded into the processor. The court says DO IT, regardless of it being impossible. Apple says any hack would compromise all iPhones everywhere, so NO.
My understanding is that the government is asking for a firmware (internal software update) to remove the self-destruct component of the code (10 failed password attempts kill the phone/data). Can Apple deploy code to a phone that is turned ‘off’?
The government isn’t asking for help cracking the password/code itself to get into the phone or to extract the data and crack the encryption.
The self-destruct mechanism ‘destroys evidence’.
Did the developers ever have a method to reset the count or did they ‘brick’ a ton of phones while in development?