Apple develops new security measures that would make it difficult to access an iPhone phone locked with a password, using methods similar to those faced by the company with the FBI, according to The New York Times.
The paper reported that if Apple succeeds in updating security measures, something that experts assume, the company would create a huge technical challenge for the FBI and other agencies, even if the US government wins the case open against the firm.
The US government requested help with an Apple iPhone used by one of the authors of the December shooting in the Californian city of San Bernardino (USA), in which 14 people died and 22 were injured.
The FBI is holding the phone but was unable to access data and has asked Apple to develop a new version of its operating system to bypass security features on the mobile device.
A US federal judge ordered Apple last week to collaborate with the FBI, demand to which the technology company refuses in a controversial case that could reach the Supreme Court of the country.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday that the security of Americans is "incredibly important".
In this regard, he said that the protection of citizens' data is also insisting that the access requests from the FBI would make its members were "incredibly vulnerable."
"It would create a precedent that would offend many people," said the head of Apple.
FBI Director James Comey, has insisted that the case of San Bernardino has a "limited" scope and affects a single phone but Cook says that's not true.
Cook argues that the technique that Apple should develop to pave the way to the FBI "could be used again and again in many devices."
Apple on Monday asked the US government to withdraw the petition demanding the company to help the FBI and instead create an official commission to assess the problems caused by the increasing use of encryption.