WASHINGTON DC – In a court filing Monday, the US Department of Justice, with the help of a third party suspected to be an Israeli company, hacked the iPhone used by a terrorist in a December attack in California. Now the feds say they no longer need Apple’s help.
The move Monday ends the legal battle between Apple and the FBI in this particular case, but it doesn’t end the overarching battle about privacy and security. There are hundreds of other iPhones that law enforcement agencies around the country want unlocked, opening Apple to potential litigation across the US. And the government’s success at accessing data on the iPhone also raises some concerns about the security of Apple’s devices.
“We sought an order compelling Apple to help unlock the phone to fulfill a solemn commitment to the victims of the San Bernardino shooting – that we will not rest until we have fully pursued every investigative lead related to the vicious attack,” Eileen M. Decker, US attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. “Although this step in the investigation is now complete, we will continue to explore every lead, and seek any appropriate legal process, to ensure our investigation collects all of the evidence related to this terrorist attack. “
Apple didn’t immediately have a comment.
The update comes a week after the Justice Department asked for a delay in its hearing with Apple and a week before the government’s deadline to update the court.
Last week, the Justice Department asked a judge to call off last Tuesday’s hearing over whether Apple should have to make software that lets the FBI unlock an iPhone 5C connected to the San Bernardino attack. In a surprise revelation the day before the hearing, the government said an unnamed outside party had provided investigators with a method that might provide access to the phone’s data. It wanted time to explore the alternative way to get into the iPhone.
The FBI hasn’t said what company it’s working with or what method it used to access the data. Cellebrite, a privately held Israeli company that specializes in transferring and extracting data from phones, has been named in some reports as the third party helping the FBI unlock the iPhone, but neither the FBI nor Cellebrite has confirmed the reports.
A law enforcement official, speaking Monday with reporters on the condition of anonymity, declined to specify how the FBI got into the phone or what company helped it gain access. The official also declined to say whether the method works on other iPhones besides Farook’s iPhone 5C, and it wouldn’t say if the FBI would tell Apple about how it got into the phone.
“We cannot comment on the possibility of future disclosures to Apple,” the official said. But the official, when asked about how the case will impact the government’s relationship with Apple going forward, said the FBI’s “goal is always to work cooperatively with Apple.”
Still, if the FBI was able to hack into the iPhone 5C, it could mean other iPhones aren’t as secure as believed.
