Apple: FBI changed the password on San Bernardino terrorist's phone and then forgot it; CORRECTION: Password was changed by county employee while phone in FBI's possession

Greg P. | 7:47 PM on February 19, 2016

Editor’s note: We’ve added a correction to the headline of this post and we apologize for the error.

Well, this is a new wrinkle in the entire Apple vs. FBI story. ABC News reports:

The Apple ID passcode for the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone was changed less than 24 hours after authorities took possession of the device, a senior Apple executive said today.

And Apple could have recovered information from the phone had the Apple ID passcode not been changed, Apple said.

If the phone was taken to a location where it recognized the Wi-Fi network, such as the San Bernardino shooters’ home, it could have been backed up to the cloud, Apple suggested.

Update: The password was changed by a county employee, not the FBI as we said in our original title:

The auto reset was executed by a county information technology employee, according to a federal official. Federal investigators only found out about the reset after it had occurred and that the county employee acted on his own, not on the orders of federal authorities, the source said.

Apple executives say the iPhone was in the possession of the government when iCloud password was reset. A federal official familiar with the investigation confirmed that federal investigators were indeed in possession of the phone when the reset occurred.