BREAKING NEWS

Police say criminals like Apple iPhones because of encryption

Some criminals have switched to new iPhones as their "device of choice" to commit wrongdoing due to strong encryption Apple Inc has placed on their products, three law enforcement groups said in a court filing.
The groups told a judge overseeing Apple's battle with the US Department of Justice on Thursday that, among other things, they were aware of "numerous instances" in which criminals who previously used so-called throwaway burner phones had switched to iPhones. They did not list a specific instance.
The brief by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and two others also cited a jailhouse phone call intercepted by New York authorities in 2015, in which an inmate called Apple's encrypted operating system a "gift from God."
The government obtained a court order last month requiring Apple to write new software to disable passcode protection and allow access to an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December killings in San Bernardino, California.