Slashdot Mirror


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).

8 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. And Vindicated.... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:And Vindicated.... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's OK, the FBI eventually, after it's caught and cornered, tells the truth.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:And Vindicated.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      Neither are the software providers. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. are not there for your protection.

      TRUST NO ONE.

    3. Re:And Vindicated.... by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Funny

      The truth is out there!

  2. Why did FBI claim they would start helping police? by JoeyRox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  3. Re:Evidence by ChrisMaple · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  4. Re:Find what they were looking for? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  5. Re:Arn't they? Oh ok. by rgbatduke · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.