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FBI Paid More Than $1 Million For San Bernardino 'Hack' (cbsnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: FBI Director James Comey has indicated the bureau paid more than $1 million for the method used to hack into the iPhone 5c belonging to one of the San Bernadino shooters. How did he allude to it? He said the FBI paid more money than he would make in the time left as FBI director. He makes just under $200,000 a year based on public files and has over seven years left on his term. "How much did you pay for this software?" Comey was asked. "A lot," he said. "More -- let's see. More than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure," Comey said. "And so it's a -- but it was in my view, worth it, because it's a tool that helps us with a 5c running iOS 9, which is a bit of a corner case, increasingly as the devices develop and move on to the 6 and 6s and whatnot and iOS's change, but I think it's very, very important that we get into that device." Comey said.
Assuming these guys are really, really good, and worth a billable rate of $250/hr - if they pulled off the job in under 90 days, were there 10+ of them on the job, or did the FBI just pay a super premium for a high profile case to make a political statement?
So they pick up the yellow pages and call "Hackers R Us" and hire a million dollar zero day exploit for an Apple 5c so they can find any information not already captured in the telco's network traffic. What a load of crap. Nothing about this story, the preposterous claim of the value of `anything on an iphone that is not already a matter of record in telecommunication logs sounds like complete baloney. I don't believe a word of what these liars are saying. Not a word of it. If they really believe there is anything of value on a cell phone that does not involve actual network transmission then I would like to know what that is. Lets be clear here - if its on an encrypted iPhone, and it never involved a network connection or transmission, then why does it even matter? If they really think there is anything more of real value then perhaps they should pursue all of the known connections. Or how about, don't shoot ten thousand bullets into the suspects after you have them completely surrounded by armies of law enforcement. Perhaps if these gun slinging assholes stopped to think about the value of a living terrorist over a dead one we wouldn't be wasting tax payer dollars on their bad learning curve on common sense.
Nearly everything the FBI says so far is a lie. Why should I believe this statement?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
It's OUR money they paid, not THEIR money. The FBI gets it's money from tax payers, and exists because of tax payers.
This is the same issue with all of Government really. The Government is always better off when they are not accountable for spending. I just wonder if they will use this as ammo to convince tax payers that we need a bigger GAO to investigate this incident and others just like it.
Before you say it, Anarchy is not the only or even best alternative. There is a whole lot of space between anarchy and our current overly bloated Government.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Funny, but it's even worse...they confirmed that they did not contact other people during the 18 minute window that they were trying to close, and they called it useful information.
They knew that the shooters went out of their way to destroy every single electric device they owned, yet they demanded to know that the phone was not used for unlawful purposes. And they paid someone a fortune who probably looked up how to do it on /.
That's not a good use of taxpayer money to make a point.
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
Maybe among Apple fans, not among the public at large.
By Apple's own admission, Apple devices are not secure.