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FBI Had No Way To Access Locked iPhone After Terror Attack, Watchdog Finds (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

The FBI did not have the technical capability to access an iPhone used by one of the terrorists behind the San Bernardino shooting, a Justice Department watchdog has found. ZDNet: A report by the department's Office of Inspector General sheds new light on the FBI's efforts to gain access to the terrorist's phone. It lands almost exactly a year after the FBI dropped a legal case against Apple, which had refused a demand by the government to build a backdoor that would've bypassed the encryption on the shooter's iPhone. Apple said at the time that if it was forced to backdoor one of its products, it would "set a dangerous precedent." Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in the southern Californian town in December 2015. The 11-page report said that the FBI "had no such capability" to access the contents of Farook's encrypted iPhone, amid concerns that there were conflicting claims about whether the FBI may have had techniques to access the device by the time it had filed a suit against Apple. Those claims were mentioned in affidavits in the court case, as well as in testimony by former FBI director James Comey.

1 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Strawman by PinkyGigglebrain · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just some food for thought. If you agree that any right explicitly protected in the US Constitution can be ignored and/or restricted then you are also agreeing that ANY right explicitly protected in the US Constitution can be ignored and/or restricted.

    Your not supposed to cherry pick what parts of the Constitution you uphold and protect. You uphold and protect ALL of it, warts and all.

    If people don't like part of it then they should support an amendment to alter/revoke that part, but until the amendment goes into effect they should follow the Constitution as it is. Like it or not.

    Another thing that people forget is that the Constitution doesn't grant any rights, everyone already has "Freedom of speech" and the rest. The Constitution is meant to put limits on what the US government can do, nothing more.