Apple ordered to break into San Bernardino shooter's iPhoneWASHINGTON — Apple must help the FBI break into an iPhone belonging to one of the killers in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.

Tashfeen Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, shot and killed 14 people in December. The couple later died in a gun battle with police. The iPhone was recovered from their vehicle in the aftermath of the attack.

The ruling from U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym requires Apple to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to the FBI, namely, software that can disable the security feature that erases data from the iPhone after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it.

Federal prosecutors told the court they could not access the phone used by Farook because they don’t know his passcode. With the security feature disabled, they can attempt as many combinations necessary to unlock the iPhone.

The iPhone in this case was not the property of Farook, but of his employer, San Bernardino County, which consented to the search.

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the company's use of encryption on its mobile devices, saying users should not have to trade privacy for national security.