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FBI Director Says Unlocking Method Won't Work On Newer iPhones (cnn.com)
Even though the FBI was able to gain access to the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone without Apple's help, the Apple-FBI saga continues. It was reported yesterday the FBI is telling members of Congress of the methods used to break into the iPhone 5c. The most recent tidbit comes from FBI Director James Comey in regard to how many iPhones are at risk from the unlock tool.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that the government had purchased "a tool" from a private party in order to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. "Litigation between the government and Apple over the San Bernardino phone has ended, because the government has purchased, from a private party, a way to get into that phone, 5c, running iOS 9," Comey said. The FBI director also said the purchased tool worked only on a "narrow slice of phones" that does not include the newest Apple models, or the 5s.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that the government had purchased "a tool" from a private party in order to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. "Litigation between the government and Apple over the San Bernardino phone has ended, because the government has purchased, from a private party, a way to get into that phone, 5c, running iOS 9," Comey said. The FBI director also said the purchased tool worked only on a "narrow slice of phones" that does not include the newest Apple models, or the 5s.
FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that the government had purchased "a tool" from a private party in order to unlock the iPhone
I wonder how that squares with 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201 of the DMCA which prohibits the distribution of tools that enable a user to circumvent access controls.
Ps, at work my team is Vulnerability Assessment > Tools. My official job title is Vulnerability Assessment Engineer. Basically, I write hack tools for a living, so the law on the subject is a tad important for me. This is something I pay attention to.
On the other hand, it's illegal for me to possess slim jims REGARDLESS of intent, since the locksmith licensing laws changed where I live. I should have taken advantage of the grace period after the law was enacted to get my locksmith license.
Here's something else he said the other day, quoted in Thursday's Columbus Dispatch: “I can imagine a world, maybe, where a local police department, in a case they can’t otherwise solve, can send us a device, with the understanding that we’re never going to testify, we’re never going to tell you how we opened it, so you’re never going to able to use what’s on the phone as evidence, but it might be a lead to something that would be useful,” he said.
To me, his casual assumption that all local police departments will routinely do parallel construction based on secret FBI information is scarier than whether they know some secret iPhone backdoor. Chain of evidence goes out the door, because terrorism.