Supporters of Tim Cook's stance on the iPhone-cracking court order show off their smartphones outside an Apple store in San Francisco. A sticker on some of the phones reads, "I do not consent to the search of this device."
James Martin/CNET
Apple now has three extra days to prepare for its defiance of a federal court order.
In a high-profile case, a federal judge in Califoia earlier this week ordered Apple to assist the FBI in unlocking an iPhone linked to the deadly terror attack in San Beardino, Califoia, in December. The judge originally gave the company five days to respond in court, meaning the answer was due by Tuesday of next week.
Now that deadline has been pushed back to Friday, February 26, according to Bloomberg News, which cited two unnamed sources.
Neither Apple nor the court responded immediately to a request for comment.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, however, has already publicly declared that his company will not comply with what he called a "chilling" court order. "The US govement has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create," Cook wrote in an open letter posted on Apple's website. "They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone."
The stakes here are high, with the case pitting issues of national security against regard for the privacy of everyday consumers. The standoff also tus up the heat on the simmering tensions over encryption -- the technology that scrambles information to prevent unauthorized readers from seeing it -- between Washington and Silicon Valley.
Cook has drawn support from high-tech honchos including the CEOs of Google and Twitter, along with privacy watchdogs such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Criticism of the Cupertino, Califoia, company's stance has been equally fervent. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, for one, urged Apple to drop its guard. "Who do they think they are? They have to open it up," he said. "We have to use common sense."
To get access to the innards of the iPhone in the San Beardino case, the FBI wants Apple to build a new version of its iOS software that would bypass the iPhone's security features and create what Cook has described as "the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession."
The FBI is trying to access an iPhone 5C used by one of the perpetrators of the December terrorist attack in San Beardino that killed 14 people and injured 22 others. Cook said Apple engineers have been working with the FBI since the attack and have "offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal."
The FBI's plan would bypass security functions that limit how many times you can enter an incorrect password. Currently, an iPhone wipes itself if the wrong password is entered 10 times in a row. With that feature disabled, investigators could enter password after password until they hit on the correct one.
Apple is willing to challenge the govement all the way to the Supreme Court, according to CBS News, citing unnamed sources. (Editors' note: CBS is the parent company of CNET.)