The FBI has unlocked the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terror attackers, officials said Monday, ending a heated legal standoff with Apple that had pitted US authorities against Silicon Vall
The FBI has unlocked the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terror attackers, officials said Monday, 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 the police.
“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.”
The court filing in US district court for the central district of California provided no details about how the FBI did it or who showed it how. The FBI is reviewing the information on the iPhone, the justice department said.
But news reports have said the FBI may have sought assistance from an Israeli forensics company.
“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 Ms Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
In response, Apple said in a statement that it will continue to increase the security of its products. While saying it will still provide some help to the government, “as we have done all along,” the company reiterated its position that the government’s demand was wrong.
“This case should never have been brought,” Apple said in its statement.
The case drew international attention and highlighted a growing friction between government authorities and the tech industry. Apple and other tech companies have said they feel increasing need to protect their customers’ data from hackers and unfriendly intruders, while the police and other government authorities have warned that encryption and other data-protection measures are making it more difficult for investigators to track criminals and dangerous extremists.
The brief court notice left important questions unanswered: Who showed the FBI how to break into iPhones How did the government bypass the security features that Apple has invested millions of dollars to build into its flagship product Are newer iPhones vulnerable to the same hacking technique Will the FBI share its information with scores of state and local police agencies that said they also need to break into the iPhones of criminal suspects
