FBI officials have somehow managed to unlock at least one of two passcode-protected iPhones owned by Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, the perpetrator of a mass shooting at a Naval Air Station in Florida last December, according to CNN.
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Apple provided the FBI with iCloud data belonging to Alshamrani, but it refused to assist investigators with gaining access to the iPhones. In a statement earlier this year, the company said that while it was "devastated to learn of the tragic terrorist attack" at the Naval Air Station, creating a backdoor into iOS would pose a national security threat.
We have always maintained there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users' data.
Alshamrani owned an iPhone 7 and an iPhone 5, according to The New York Times.
Apple faced a similar situation in 2016, when a U.S. federal judge ordered the company to help the FBI unlock an iPhone owned by Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the December 2015 attacks in San Bernardino, California. Apple opposed the order, noting that it would set a "dangerous precedent." In that case, the FBI also found a way to access the iPhone, although the method was never publicly disclosed.
Last week, exploit acquisition platform Zerodium announced that it would not be purchasing any iOS exploits for a few months due to a high number of submissions, noting that there are at least a few persistent security vulnerabilities affecting all iPhones and iPads. "Let's hope iOS 14 will be better," said Zerodium CEO Chaouki Bekrar.
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Top Rated Comments
The ticking clock scenario is a plot device, not how real life scenarios work.
That aside. With the billions we’ve spent on “national security” you’re telling me that if the massive surveillance apparatus we’ve set up across the entire world fails to stop a plot down to the point where the ONLY way to prevent something is *unlocking an iPhone* it’s APPLE that has something to answer for!?!?
“Asking Apple” is asking them to engineer a backdoor, period.
Cellebrite, amongst literally hundreds of other intelligence-linked firms develop exploits all day every day. Cellebrite in particular then markets their equipment to law enforcement all over the world. An exploit gets patched, they move on to the next.
https://www.cellebrite.com/en/advanced-services/
Apple, as iOS is currently engineered, has no secret method of bypassing iOS security. That’s by design, you can’t compel them to do something they’ve explicitly designed not to happen.
https://www.wired.com/story/cellebrite-ufed-ios-12-iphone-hack-android/
MEANWHILE, the FBI is now empowered to look through anyone’s emails AND WEB HISTORY WITHOUT A WARRANT thanks to the extension of the Patriot Act that is passing shortly. So let’s put to bed the notion that this story is anything other than US intelligence agencies trying to manufacture consent to spy on everyone at any time as is their goal.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-patriot-act-renewal-fbi-web-browsing-history-2020-5