I told you more than a week ago that The FBI can't unlock an attacker's iPhone SE who killed several dozen people in a church in Texas. The story is not over, because the American authorities have now asked Apple to unlock that phone, sending it a search warrant that it will have to execute.
The authorities want to access the iPhone SE of the attacker, but it is difficult to say if this will be possible, since the unlocking was not done until 48 hours after the man died. Touch ID has been disabled, and the attacker's phone now requires the entry of its security code, and Apple cannot obtain it at this time.
The authorities want access to the data on the phone and to those in iCloud, and although information can be provided for iCloud, it is unlikely that anything can be done for the accs code. Apple stated after the attack that it tried to contact the authorities to help them, but it seems that the latter did not really bother with the offer from Cupertino.
The phone was sent to the FBI's main lab in Quantico, but since the data was not extracted, it's pretty clear that unlocking couldn't be done. If that phone had a backup, there is definitely a saved access code there, but it's hard to say if Apple can or wants to provide it, considering that it fought not to do things like this.
"Next, we hear that the Rangers have served Apple with a search warrant (dated November 9) demanding access to Kelley's iPhone SE. Apparently the forensics lab scientists couldn't break into it. The warrant requests the files on shooter Kelley's iPhone SE and in his iCloud account (if one exists). "
