FBI says hack tool only works on iPhone 5c
FBI Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College that a tool that the agency bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killer only works on the iPhone 5c running iOS 9.
FBI Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College that a tool that the agency bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killer only works on the iPhone 5c running iOS 9.
The FBI has promised to help local law enforcement authorities crack encrypted devices, in a letter that refers to the federal agency’s success in accessing the data on an iPhone 5c running iOS 9 that was used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
U.S. government agencies have filed more than 70 orders requiring Apple or Google to help law enforcement agencies unlock mobile devices since 2008, despite the agency's insistence that its fight with Apple in a recent terrorism case was limited in scope.
A judge in California vacated on Tuesday an earlier order asking Apple to assist the FBI in cracking the passcode of an iPhone 5c running iOS 9 that was used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
The FBI hack of an iPhone 5c running iOS 9 may have left the device just a little bit insecure in the eyes of some users, as the agency has not provided details of how it was able to access data on the phone used by the San Bernardino terrorist.
The U.S. government has managed to access the iPhone used by San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook, bypassing a passcode that had the FBI stymied for several weeks.
Weeks before the FBI headed to court to force Apple to help it break into a mass shooter's iPhone, a sister agency in the Department of Justice was already using an Israeli security firm to attempt to crack the company's devices.
Don't expect the U.S. government to back off its push for technology vendors to build encryption workarounds into their products, even as the FBI has acknowledged it may have a way to crack into an iPhone used in a high-profile mass shooting case.
The FBI says it may have discovered a way to break into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters, and the agency has asked a judge to postpone a court hearing in the matter that was scheduled for Tuesday.
Apple and the U.S. Department of Justice will argue in court Tuesday about whether a judge should require the tech giant help the FBI unlock an iPhone used by a mass shooter in California.
Apple says a last-minute request by the FBI to call witnesses to next week's court hearing in the San Bernardino iPhone case indicates the agency might feel some weakness in its legal arguments.
The iPhone 5c at the center of the legal battle between Apple and the FBI might be accessible through a delicate hardware technique, but experts warn it would be difficult.
The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed an order by a court in New York that turned down its request that Apple should be compelled to extract data from the iPhone 5s of an alleged drug dealer.
Several law enforcement groups and family members of victims of December's San Bernardino mass shooting have backed the FBI and opposed Apple in a court fight over an iPhone used by one of the shooters.
Apple got a shot in the arm in its dispute over helping the FBI crack an iPhone used by a terrorist, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein warning that an outcome against Apple will set an unwelcome precedent.