In 2016, the FBI almost the beginning of a protracted litigation with Apple. Then the police tried to crack the iPhone 5c, which belonged to the terrorist Syed Rizvan Farouk, who with his accomplices staged a shooting in San Bernardino. Then Apple refused to assist law enforcement and hack iPhone, saying that the government is trying to force the company to develop a backdoor, and it may be too dangerous in the long term.
The FBI tried to crack the iPhone on their own, but to no avail. Then the security services found a third-party contractor (according to some media reports, it was hackers) who have managed to implement the hack smartphone. According to official data, this procedure cost the FBI a million dollars.
How exactly was hacked iPhone 5c Farouk, and who was the mysterious “third party contractor”, is not known. The U.S. Department of justice has published a new paper, in which plain text says that to reveal itself a hacking tool and information about it to the FBI did not intend.
The fact that now US authorities are suing three news organizations, including the Associated Press, which try to reveal the data about the tool, which was a jailbroken iPhone Farouk. According to new court documents, police believe that the secrecy from the tool used to remove early, as it can still be useful.
“After the disclosure of this information could reasonably expect that it will cause serious damage to national security, as it would allow hostile entities to understand what techniques are used to gather intelligence, as well as the capabilities and limitations of these methods. Intelligence activities and methods are not disclosed in this case, today, still being used and/or may be useful to the FBI for intelligence gathering,” writes David hardy, head of operational accounting with the FBI.
These statements are at variance with the words as representatives of the FBI and by Apple. So, in 2016, the FBI has confirmed that the hack was only the iPhone 5c, and the method used will not work for later iPhone models. Apple completely stated that the methodology will not live long and hacking, most likely, was a one-time precedent.
However, judging from the papers published, a certain vulnerability, or the method may continue to be relevant, and continue to use representatives of the American special services.
