While it was a safe bet to get a bit nervous when the government investigative agency announced they no longer needed Apple to unlock the iPhone that belonged to the San Bernadino shooter Syed Farook, it appears the agency was careful not to put millions of users around the world at risk. He added that Apple might want to consider adopting a bug bounty program similar to those used by other companies to reward “white hat” hackers for disclosing vulnerabilities so they can be fixed.
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The hackers have not been identified.
Prosecutors in that case said they would update the court by April 11 on whether it would “modify” its request for Apple’s assistance. Initially, forensic company Cellebrite’s name was dragged into the controversy, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation clarified that it was a hacker group that sold the tool for a one-time payment.
Previous media reports suggested Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite was the unnamed third party that helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation unlock Farook’s iPhone 5c.
It ended a high-stakes legal clash but leaving the broader fight over encryption unresolved. Black hats hack illegally, whether for pay, to steal information, to gain access to restricted sites for personal gain or vendetta, or just to cause a ruckus. After 10 incorrect tries, all of the data on the device is erased as a security precaution.
According to the Post, the device and method used to unlock the San Bernardino phone “has unlimited shelf life”, echoing FBI Director James B. Comey’s claim that it works only on iPhone C models running iOS 9.
Photo illustration: An iPhone held up in front of the Apple logo.
But as Vox’s Timothy Lee writes, “If technology companies deliberately weaken their encryption products to accommodate the United States government, they’ll simultaneously make those products more vulnerable to hackers and foreign governments seeking to exploit those same weaknesses” – a case Apple has been making all along.
“I’m glad the litigation is gone because I think it was creating an emotion around the issue that was not productive but I hope that with the litigation gone we don’t stop talking about the issue”, Comey told students in a discussion at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.
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When it comes to this kind of technology, the White House has a policy in place for reviewing flaws and figuring out which ones it will reveal to the public.
