(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has waded into the battle between the FBI and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) over the hacking of a phone belonging to one of the killers in the December mass shooting in San Bernadino. Last week the FBI asked for help to hack the phone but was rebuffed by Apple with others including social media titans Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) quick to endorse its stance. But Gates said: 'This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing they are asking for a particular case.' 'It is no different than [asking] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information should anybody be able to get at bank records' he added. Gates was speaking after FBI director James Comey hit back at Apple at the weekend. He said: 'We simply want the chance with a search warrant to try to guess the terrorist's passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That's it.' Last week the US District Court in Los Angeles ruled that Apple must provide "reasonable technical assistance" to investigators seeking to unlock the data on the phone including bypassing the passcode protection function so they can attempt an unlimited number of password guesses but the tech giant has remained resolute in its refusal. The two are in a legal battle; with Apple looking to protect its code - which is covered by the US's free-speech law - while the FBI want to weaken the encryption process to help with investigations.
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