Updated 5:40pm: Software giant Apple is telling customers it'll continue to increase the security of its products.

The FBI has now been able to get encrypted information from the iPhone of a man who went on a shooting rampage in California in December.

The tech giant denied a court order asking it to write new software that would disable the password protection, and the FBI found its way into the phone through other measures.

Apple has issued a lengthy statement, expressing concern at the FBI's actions and stating it will continue to work against attacks on it's data that are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated

The US Justice Department has now dropped a high-stakes legal fight against tech giant Apple, saying the government has successfully accessed data stored on an encrypted iPhone used in a terrorist shooting in California.

The government had insisted until last week it had no way to access the phone used by one of the shooters, except to force Apple to write new software that would disable the password protection.

The Justice Department obtained a court order last month directing Apple to create that software.

But the technology company fought back, arguing the order was an overreach by the government and would undermine computer security for everyone.

Meanwhile the FBI is staying mum on whether it's uncovered anything from the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

It's hacked the phone of Rizwan Farook who, with his wife, went on a shooting rampage in the Californian suburb last December, killing 14 people.

All the US Justice Department will say so far is that a third party helped unlock the phone and give its data to the FBI.