Jailbreak or Jail – Is Hacking for the Government A Crime?

After the horrific shooting in San Bernardino, California, federal law enforcement officers seized the now-dead suspect's iPhone, and sought to examine it. However, the phone was "locked" using proprietary hardware and software from Apple. The government sought a court order (under the All Writs Act — an 18th century statute) compelling Apple to develop and implement a process to break their own security, and to provide to the FBI the unlocked and unencrypted contents of the iPhone.