For the government to make the necessary modified version of iOS, they need to have or acquire a team of skilled engineers that either already have <i>detailed</i> knowledge of iOS and the devices it runs on, or a way for their team to learn that knowledge. This would probably be somewhat expensive in both money and time.<p>To acquire Apple&#x27;s keys, the government only needs someone who can replace the device key and re-sign a new iOS package, and a sympathetic judge that will sign a subpoena, warrant, or national security letter. This is practically free and shouldn&#x27;t take more than a day or two (warrants are sometimes granted near-realtime).<p>I don&#x27;t understand why would think taking Apple&#x27;s keys (which <i>wouldn&#x27;t</i> require &quot;stealing&quot;) somehow requires more resources? A warrant or nsl is much cheaper than a team of developers.