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FBI Bought $1M iPhone 5C Hack, But Doesn't Know How It Works (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The FBI has no idea how the hack used in unlocking the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5C works, but it paid a sum less than $1m for the mechanism, according to a report. Reuters, citing several U.S. government sources, note that the government intelligence agency didn't pay a value over $1.3m for purchasing the hack from professional hackers, as previously reported by many outlets. The technique can also be used as many times as needed without further payments, the report adds. The FBI director, James Comey, said last week that the agency paid more to get into the iPhone 5C than he will make in the remaining seven years and four months he has in his job, suggesting the hack cost more than $1.3m, based on his annual salary.
I know what it was, they didn't find anything, so the seller just wiped the phone and restored it from the iCloud backup that they already had the password to, making the FBI think that they actually unlocked it, when in reality they did nothing.
This is the second dupe in a few hours. Seriously? Do you get paid twice every Friday?
"I do not recall."
"Your tax dollars at work."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Given the nature of the millennial shift to electronic everything everywere, IOT, the US had better figure out how to set up its own mega sized hacking teams which aren't limited by USGovt pay grades.
is born every minute
-- Bill Gates
1 - wealthy is a curse, your family is cursed - take me for example: there's a rich girl who take pills because it's a suicidal psycho because is a penis collector, she got somehow in love with my dick (probrably another girl - the only one who ever saw my dick online - told her)
2 - you made me unable to date every chick I got close, and that's is worse than raping babies before wating them bc the meat gets more chewye
3 - you can get the same tap on your back and together with a "good luck" charm when you use heroin.
The best part of FBI is that they have hire developers who their hobby includes programming, instead of having a snake. (WOW DUDE! I got the analogy now!) :D
Sounds like the FBI just bought a malware.
It's like an all you can eat iPhone buffet
Whipslash seems to have figured it how to push Slashdot's users buttons...
But posting the same fucking article 3 times a day is just fucking retarded.
Reminds me of scenes from Gibson's Neuromancer-era books where people could illicitly buy "ice" to penetrate a particular type of target. Ice for hard targets was pricey but very user-friendly: just a particular shape they dropped onto the target in their VR headset and then watched it eat its way in, all without knowing its workings.
Old news yet again
Good, he's shown he's not smart enough to deserve more.
Table-ized A.I.
If big Guv'ment is going to foolishly pay that much for a crack that could be obsolete tomorrow, you can bet they're going to try and legislate it to make it illegal for Apple and other companies to "correct" their flaws.
The device in question is definitely a circumvention device under DMCA so it is illegal, per federal law, for someone to create this thing or traffic in it. DMCA provides an exemption to law enforcement and those who are contracted by law enforcement, but there is just cause to believe that the device would have been created prior to the contract. Indeed, the FBI probably would not have been able to approach anyone for the device, unless they had reason to believe that some criminal already had it.
All of the FBI knows that a crime was committed, and somebody in he FBI knows who. The crime needs to be prosecuted, or at least investigated, since I think WE ALL AGREE (heh) that DMCA is a very serious law and must be enforced.
Anyone at the FBI who continues to cover up the identity of the criminal, is possibly obstructing justice and an accomplice. So now there's a second crime to investigate.
(Also, how do we know that a second device wasn't created (seems like a profitable business even if less than $1.3M), or that the seller isn't making others for use not-under-contract with law enforcement? None of these concerns are even slightly far-fetched, are they?)
They write:
he FBI doesn’t know how the hack used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5C works, and yet it paid in the region of $1m for the mechanism, which can used again to unlock any other iPhone 5C running iOS 9, according to reports.
Then they write:
Several US government sources told Reuters that the amount paid for the hack, bought from professional hackers, was substantially less than previous reports indicating a value over $1.3m.
Hmm. According to the Guardian $1million is substantially less that $1.3million? That doesn't seem right.
Here's what Reuters actually wrote:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-idUSKCN0XQ032
FBI Director James Comey last week said the agency paid more to get into the iPhone than he will make in the remaining seven years and four months he has in his job, suggesting the hack cost over $1.3 billion, based on his annual salary.
Well, now that makes more sense. Under $1million is substantially less than $1.3billion.
Next time submitter, just cite the original source for the story, i.e. Reuters.
and then they both cashed in on it. I bet it was DirkaDirka
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
It was delicious. ...sorry, I'm feeling super sarcastic today.
Seriously, the FBI and Comey in particular have flat out lied so many times in the past year that I honestly can't think of a reason why anyone should believe the things they say.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The US, and the security industry in general, needs to stop hiding that they don't know shit and are nothing but a bunch of s'kiddies at best.
One of the ways this leaks out is that the FBI ended up paying an indecent amount of money for digital dowsing rods, just like the military did for supposedly real ones, "needing no power" yet "running advanced software". Red flags right there, nobody bats an eye.
Yes, "hack" in general usage now means "cyber dowsing rod" just like "hacker" in general usage now means "cyber bogeyman". You can try and buy more rods or try and hire more of bogeymen, but that still doesn't work. It won't work. It never does. We ought to know this by now. Don't be stupid, man.
The FBI should have to get congressional approval(power of the purse) to spend this kind of money when there is no specific line item in the FBI's budget.
News at 11. Duh.
So did they vet the source of the 0day to make sure they weren't forking over a significant amount of money to an organized crime syndicate?
Actually, material under NDA is specifically exempted from FOIA. Otherwise nobody would ever send proprietary information (like a proposal responding to a Request for Proposals) to the government.
They just straight up didn't hack it - they may believe they did if one of their own scammed them for easy money though.
FTA:
FBI Guy says, "The FBI confirmed that it would not tell Apple about the security flaw exploited in the hack, partly because the law enforcement agency does not know how it works." [And they won't tell either, so whatever they do with it is their own business. Wah.]
Thanks for keeping us all safe by violating Federal Law!
Fuck you, you AC piece of shit. I knew Ed. It's assholes like you that should have a bullet through their heads.
heres a what if, what if Apple provided a device to unlock it, but to avoid public outcry the FBI "found" a contractor who nobody knows, who provided a device for an absurd cost - this scenario saves Apple's public image while still allowing the FBI access to the data.
Sounds plausible to me
Isn't the real story here how little the Director of the FBI makes? This guy runs an agency with an $8 Billion budget and he makes $200k/year (1.3 million / 7.3 years). By way of comparison, the annual budget for the LA Unified School District is ~$7 Billion. The superintendent makes $400k+.
Something doesn't quite add up in this story. So, the FBI has this black box that they don't know what it does and how it works. All they know is that you put an iPhone into it, and it produces supposedly decrypted data from the said iPhone? How can they verify that it actually does a complete and accurate job? That it doesn't introduce some random files, or hides some information? Either FBI is lying again, or they bought something that's completely useless, as I don't see how any judge would accept the results of what this black box produced as legitimate. Especially considering the box was made in a foreign country (Israel?).
What's with saying they paid one million in the headline, then saying they paid less than one million in the summary, and then continuing on to say they paid less than 1.3 million later on, meaning they almost certainly paid over one million?
This is a great example of capitalism being regressive.
They know how it works.. They're doing it to mine now