FBI 'could force Apple to hand over private key'

A legal filing implies that Department of Justice has a plan B, which involves demanding the company's electronic signature

If Apple doesn't comply with the court order requiring it to weaken the security on the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, it may be asked to hand over the source code to the entire operating system instead, the Department of Justice has implied.

In its formal legal rebuttal to Apple, the department addressed one of Apple's key legal arguments: that forcing it to write the code, which would remove key security features from Syed Farook's iPhone would be unduly burdensome.