How did they do it? Apple remains in the dark on the FBI's iPhone hack
How did they do it? Apple remains in the dark on the FBI's iPhone hack
The announcement by the FBI that it mysteriously hacked into an iPhone is a public setback for Apple Inc. Not even a month and a half after it convinced a judge that without Apple’s help it could never unlock the encrypted iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook last year, the agency announced that it had gotten into the phone without such help. Security experts can only speculate on how the FBI and, most likely, third-party researchers managed a feat that the government had previously declared impossible to achieve without Apple’s “exclusive technical means.” The FBI might have to explain the hacks used on iPhones where unlocking the iPhone yields evidence that can be presented in court. But as long as that doesn’t happen, FBI can keep the hacks secret.
When federal agencies discover a new vulnerability in commercial and open source software — a so-called 'zero day' vulnerability because the developers of the vulnerable software have had zero days to fix it — it is in the national interest to responsibly disclose the vulnerability rather than to hold it for an investigative or intelligence purpose.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in an April 2014 statement
Meanwhile, Apple remains in the dark about how to restore the security of its flagship product. Backed by a broad coalition of technology giants like Google and Facebook, Apple was fiercely opposed to assisting the U.S. government in unlocking the iPhone on grounds that it would have wide-reaching implications on digital security and privacy. Apple said in a statement Monday that the legal case to force its cooperation "should never have been brought," and it promised to increase the security of its products.
It is sort of a mixed bag for Apple. ... [It] tells the world the FBI apparently has the ability to get into your phone.
Mark Bartholomew, a law professor at the University of Buffalo who studies encryption and cyberlaw
