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THE FBI HAS unlocked the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terror attackers, officials said yesterday, ending a heated legal standoff with Apple that had pitted US authorities against Silicon Valley.
Apple, backed by a broad coalition of technology giants like Google and Facebook, was fiercely opposed to assisting the US government in unlocking the iPhone on grounds it would have wide-reaching implications on digital security and privacy.
A key court hearing scheduled earlier this month to hear arguments from both sides in the sensitive case was abruptly cancelled after the FBI said it no longer needed Apple’s help because it had found an outside party to unlock the phone.
Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California on December 2 before dying in a firefight with police. Two other phones linked to the pair were found destroyed after the attack.
“Our decision to conclude the litigation was based solely on the fact that, with the recent assistance of a third party, we are now able to unlock that iPhone without compromising any information on the phone,” US attorney Eileen Decker said in a statement.
In a court filing asking that the case be dismissed, federal prosecutors said the US government had “successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires assistance from Apple Inc.”
It was unclear who helped the FBI access the phone and what was stored on the device.
But news reports have said the FBI may have sought assistance from an Israeli forensics company.
In a statement late yesterday the FBI declined to say who that party was, or what technical steps were taken to unlock the phone.
“The full exploitation of the phone and follow-up investigative steps are continuing. My law enforcement partners and I made a commitment to the victims of the 12/2 attack in San Bernardino and to the American people that no stone would be left unturned in this case,” said Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
The goal of the probe is to determine if the California attackers worked with others, were targeting others and were supported by others, the FBI said.
“While we continue to explore the contents of the iPhone and other evidence, these questions may not be fully resolved, but I am satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before and that the investigative process is moving forward,” Eimiller said.
‘A new low’
Tech companies, security experts and civil rights advocates had vowed to fight the government, saying it would set a precedent to compel companies to build backdoors into their products.
The government had fired back, insisting that Apple was not above the law and that its request for technical assistance concerned only Farook’s work phone from the San Bernardino health department.
Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, a non-profit that supports Apple, said Monday’s announcement was proof the government had an alternative motive in the case.
“The FBI’s credibility just hit a new low,” he said in a statement. “They repeatedly lied to the court and the public in pursuit of a dangerous precedent that would have made all of us less safe.
“Fortunately, internet users mobilised quickly and powerfully to educate the public about the dangers of backdoors, and together we forced the government to back down.”
In a recent editorial, The Wall Street Journal also criticized the Justice Department’s legal battle as “reckless” and said the FBI had “fibbed by saying the Apple case is about one phone.”
FBI director James Comey said his agency only decided to back down in the court case after it found a third party that could crack the phone.
“You are simply wrong to assert that the FBI and the Justice Department lied about our ability to access the San Bernardino killer’s phone,” Comey said in an open letter.
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They paid a guy from Moore street a tenner to unlock it.The FBI guy also got some cheap tobacco and hair extensions before getting his flight back.
Hahahahaha
is there an echo around here or what?
Brill!!
I respect Apple for standing their ground. I don’t believe for one minute they couldn’t have unlocked this phone any time they wanted. Sure we have an entire street in Dublin offering to the service for €50
You are confused, I wasn’t that they wanted to unlock the phone from the Vodafone network, it’s data was encrypted/locked which noone in Ireland could unlock
Think the joke’s been lost on you buddy…
No, people in Dublin cant crack their data encryption code for €50! Totally different thing than “unlocking” a phone to a different network.
this particular “joke” was worn out the 5th or 6th time i read it! ;)
Good for them .. Shame on Apple for not unlocking it saying it would have been a breach of trust and rights. ..!! What about the trust and rights of the people those two shot ..
What about the trust and rights of everyone else who owns an iphone that potentially would be forever compromised once this back door which has never existed before is created?
The ends justify the means is it?
Apple only cares about money , the US corporations have a legal responsibility to make money above all other factors including a few of the great unwashed who got shot.
So in other words you’re saying that 14 people are okay to be killed, and a further 24 people shot but only injured. All as long as you can send a text message without anyone looking. Because that’s effectively what your agreeing to. How many people would have to be killed before you’d be ok with police looking at a mobile phone?
The problem is not with police doing what police do. It’s with a lax oversight that doesn’t first ask police to justify their actions. And I can practically guarantee that most policing services do not have the time nor the will to care about constantly going through everyone’s phones all the time.
The danger is the precedent it sets and what starts as ‘sure he’s a terrorist’ turns into ‘sure he might be a terrorist’ then ‘sure we should open them all for keyword analysis because they all could be terrorists’ then it’s simply ‘sure why not’.
That danger is there, no more so than in America where police have considerably more access powers than say in Ireland. However, I go back to my point that it is the responsibility of police to look. It is the responsibility of oversight bodies to question why. 14 people are dead, and a further 24 injured. That to me is precedent enough to allow access. Beating on police for looking into all lines of inquiry is wrong. Stonewalling for ever more is equally wrong. What is possibly more damaging for everyone now is that the FBI have gone and done the hack themselves. They did it without official help, without the legal battle having been finished. There is now nothing stopping the FBI from doing this again and again. If the FBI had been tied up in the legal battle then it may well have served to provide clear legal frameworks within which they can act. Now though, because the FBI have been stonewalled on the issue, we now have a situation where the FBI have gone, and will go again, in a unilaterally act.
Well he is dead as is his wife so not sure it matters all that much and as he took the right to life away from several people and injured many others he gave up any rights he may have. Anyone who thinks any mobile phone company cannot unlock a phone is kidding them selves. The authorities were always going to get the data from this phone, nothing is unhackable it just has to been hacked yet. What has now happened is Apple had the opportunity to have this done on a case by case basis, the big bad Well as govt as some would have you belive, now have the very access that apple didn’t want to hand over.
some of you guys are exactly the type of people tyrannical governments such as the united stasi of america wish made up the whole population ;)
I think that’s the big point people are missing. There was an opportunity to put in place frameworks and a legal case to look at the role of hacking the iPhone. Now though, the FBI have gone and done it themselves without any need for the rest of society to get involved. The FBI had effectively opened a door to allow a debate*, and then went ahead and closed it.
While I frown upon giving police the right to snoop in peoples stuff willy nilly, surely this phone is evidence in an atrocity investigation. Why is such evidence not covered by a search warrant? If the house had a security system wouldn’t the vendor have to disable it to allow police access to execute a search warrant?
Absafknlutely well said Matey this makes no sense at all apple should be charged for perverting the course of justice or fined a couple of billion no computer Corp should be above the law!
The issue here, as shown by Edward Snowdon, is that various branches of the US government were acting above/outside the law. One should never surrender a power to a benign government that one wouldn’t want a malicious government to have.
Of course, but this was evidence and like the police cant normally enter your house they may apply for a search warrant from a judge. In my view Apple were not cooperating with a criminal investigation and should be charged with trying to pervert the course of justice.
you’re talking about the police yet there are agencies at play in the united stasi of america and around the world that don’t bahave like police or stick to the rules, they make and break the rules as they please
hi NSA ;)
There goes the warranty if it breaks!
Everyone so precious about their iPhones. All that seems to matter these days. Kinda pathetic really. Get priorities right.
John McAfee had offered to unlock it, though doubt this offer was taken up.
Considering he was sailing away with some kites and multicoloured lollipops and a stream full of rainbow coloured elephants in his house in Belize at the time, with the bong nearby, id say he barely noticed their reply.
McAffee later admitted he had no idea how to unlock the phone since it was encrypted, he said he made the statements to get on TV
3rd Party = Apple?
Worst thing is, if this isn’t the case there are people whizzing around who can help interested parties bypass privacy settings.
And this surprises you? Of course there are people out there who can infiltrate systems, it is how organisations improve security by using these talented people.
The entire story is ridiculous because Apple knew and the U.S. authorities knew they could access the encrypted data eventually but they saw an opportunity to use the case as a way to get a data free for all for agencies except on all citizens not just persons of interest. They were effectively chancing their arm. And no doubt they will try again
More hysteria & nonsense with some clever free advertising for Apple albeit, it just might come back to bite them care of this mysterious Israeli software company. It is beggars belief that with all the resources of the FBI, they couldn’t get into this phone, Jesus we landed a man on the moon for God sake. The entire debacle was nothing short of a publicity stunt.
I want to be put in touch with the person who unblocked
In times of trouble the west can always rely on the Israelis.
An embarrassing episode for Apple who put profit before public safety.
That’s why I’ll never buy an Apple product.
baaaaaaa
His passcode was probably just 0000
And you beleive them? As if Apple would ever tell the public they hacked one of there phones.. money money money !!
So privacy isn’t a priority?
No, safety is.
I think scorpion computers did it.
The password was 1111 I bet.
The FBI always could, they just wanted a backdoor into all Apple phones really and used this case as an excuse to allow that?
I consider that my safety is more important than my privacy.
I bet they did.They backed down because they would have looked foolish when they found there was nothing on it.
have your say