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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.
The government is just pissed Apple beat them in the war of public opinion and that they said no to the government.
That is why we keep hearing them say now that Apple devices are not secure and trying to hurt Apple in a new war of public opinion.
I wish there would be a push back against the government's use of Apple phones and make public officials give them up since they are apparently so "insecure."
Nothing of importance. We know they already were given a copy of the information on the phone from Apple (most recent backup), of which they found nothing. The FBI then themselves said they don't believe they would find anything important, but decided to push through with it anyways. Now they've gotten in, and haven't announced they found anything interesting, so guess what that means?
Or they paid the going rate.
iOS vulnerabilities and zero-days really are that expensive, because there's so few of them. I mean, there was one last year - 3 prizes of $1M each to break iOS, and only one of the three available was claimed.
It's why Apple doesn't bother with bug bounties - if people are willing to pay $1M for it, even a $100,000 bug bounty is too little.
It's not that iOS is bug-free, far from it. It's really because Apple has hardened the entry points that results in breaking in requiring an elaborate set of steps and timing to get in. And the perceived value of the data.
The FBI didn't overpay, they just paid the going rate.
Standard process: Appointed by president, confirmed by senate. The term is ten years, but in practice almost every single director has left before their term is up. I'm surprised the appointment is not more politically contested, given that the director is in a position to influence what crimes the FBI focuses on and thus to advance either party agenda easily.