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FBI Paid Professional Hackers One-Time Fee To Crack San Bernardino iPhone
There's another new wrinkle in the never-ending FBI vs Apple saga. The Washington Post is claiming that FBI did not require Cellebrite's assistance in hacking San Bernardino iPhone. Instead, the report claims, the government intelligence organization bought a previously unknown security bug from a group of professional hackers. According to the report, the hacker group provided FBI with at least one zero-day flaw in the iPhone 5c's security, which enabled FBI to circumvent the lockscreen and other security features. The bug hasn't been disclosed. FBI has previously noted that the technique it utilized in breaking into the iPhone 5c does not work with any new iPhone models (iPhone 5s or newer).
i was telling people that the FBI was lying and Cellbright did not sell them anything to do this...
Remember kids, DO NOT TRUST law enforcement. they are not there for your protection.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
how is someone selling a bug exploit to someone else illegal?, or are you assuming everyone who calls themselves hackers are doing illegal stuff and have found the exploits illegally?
if these guys can do it, and the FBI can now do it, then ANYONE can do it. The chinese, north korea, data theives -
and the american government wants to force companies to put shit like this in their software on PURPOSE?
It was John McAfee! The FBI didn't admit it because they still want to see him eat a shoe!
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
After they "cracked" the San Bernardino phone the FBI publicly came out and said they would use the information they gleaned to start assisting local law enforcement agencies to crack iPhones for their cases as well. I guess that was a bold-face lie, told to make Apple look bad to their security-conscious customers who are concerned that the FBI now has the ability to crack iPhones.
The story is that the FBI was looking for a contact list: people or organizations to be considered for further investigation. If such a list contained Joe's Pizza, Al's Garage, and 9 people named Mohammed, some of that list is likely to be terrorist related.
It's a question of looking for likely suspects, and being on the list is by itself not evidence of guilt.
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and a potential boon for Apple as all these customers still using last year's model now have to upgrade to this year's models!
Unlikely. It was Farouk's work phone, and he and his wife had personal phones. Before the attack, he and his wife made sure to destroy their personal phones. They left this one alone so either he forgot about it or there was nothing on it worth destroying. Even Bernandino County officials admitted they suspected the phone had little information on it.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
You know the director will be dragged in on the carpet by congress on the ethics of using hackers at this level.
If they paid them using gov't funds, lets hope they kept track of the funds used.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
being on the list is by itself not evidence of guilt.
You keep telling yourself that when your contact info shows up on a suspected terrorist's phone and you are hauled off for extensive interrogation.
and a potential boon for Apple as all these customers still using last year's model now have to upgrade to this year's models!
The 5c was three revisions ago at this point. Do try to keep up.
Not at all. This whole thing was one big security circus. Apple got tons of free press and saved it's face, FBI got what it wanted - a precedent. An local police has a new best friend.
Only one who got fucked in this deal is you, dear tax payer.
You're so full of shit it's running out of your ears.
Apple got as much negative press as positive. Maybe more. There are a BUNCH of people that still think that Apple is marketing to Terrists. THAT kind of publicity really DOESN'T fall under the adage of "Any publicity is good publicity."
Also, the FBI got NO legal precedent. They FOLDED, right before they were going to court for that, probably because the Amicus Curiae Briefs and even some really high-up Government Officials in the Intelligence Sector in support of Apple were piling up as high as the sky, and the FBI was AFRAID of the "Precedent" they WERE going to set...
I really wonder which hackers they hired... someone they are investigating, or just a dark web personal ad from Estonia. The more they say the more idiotic they sound. The FBI sounds as inefficient as the TSA and Congress. A bunch of blowhards with authority that can't get the job done properly because nobody trusts or likes how they operate. Public servants that are always at odds with the public, and never have any good news to report. Nevertheless, never getting the job done is the only job security that exists anymore.
Since they have changed their "post-hack" story at least once, I submit that the FBI either already had the phone hacked (sans Apple's help), OR they never DID get into the phone (more likely); but needed a plausible excuse to sabotage their own legal efforts, since it was pretty clear that the Court case was NOT going to go their way, and they didn't want to set THAT Precedent.
Considering how common the name Mohammed is, your statement could read:
and be just as meaningless. Unless you know something about Joe's Pizza that you're not telling the rest of us.
My question is: Have they said whether they found useful information on the phone? (Not that I necessarily trust them to answer that truthfully at this stage.)
This is precisely my experience. Every time I've been broken into and called the police, a bored looking cop comes out, takes a statement, looks at the point of entry and then leaves, never to be heard from again. They only do this much so you can file your insurance, if you are stupid enough to file your insurance (since the insurance company will then just upgrade your risk and raise your rates enough to cover your payout plus an indefinite bleed of additional profit for them for the rest of eternity. No fingerprints. No searching area fences or eBay for your lost goods. No questioning likely suspects. If they are feeling enormously helpful, they may suggest that you get the broken lock fixed as the bad guys might come back and steal some more, and no, they aren't going to stake the joint out to find out.
Law enforcement is almost non-existent. Police are often called on to "keep the peace" -- to intervene in potentially dangerous situations involving human conflict or risk -- but they don't go out of their way to arrest anybody even then. They do arrest shoplifters, but that is because there is usually hard evidence and the perps are caught in the act. They do arrest anybody who rubs drug usage in their face and spend at least some time arresting the merely unwary. They do a decent job at pulling drunk drivers, when they catch them for obvious driving errors. Outside of that, by far -- far -- my most common interaction with Law Enforcement is getting pulled with a car tag a month out of date. Damn, they are hell on car registration. Makes me feel safe at night, knowing that no scofflaw is able to drive around without properly registered tags, unless of course they are an illegal alien without any driver's license or insurance at all driving a company truck.
Sigh.
The two laws that get en
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.