A judge had ordered Apple to write software so the government could unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
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David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in an interview Tuesday that the agency’s Washington headquarters became aware Sunday evening of a third-party claim that it could unlock the iPhone. Officials from Cellebrite, Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have declined to comment on the reports.
Cellebrite, a private company founded in 1999 and based in Petah Tikva, Israel, manufactures a variety of technologies that make it possible for law enforcement agencies to extract crucial data from popular cell phones.
“The level of complexity is exponential and it’s at a point that it’s getting difficult-but if anyone can do it, it’s us”, Leeor Ben-Peretz, executive vice president of products and business development for mobile forensics at Cellebrite, told Haaretz.
The US Justice Department is now in the midst of a well-publicized feud with Apple after obtaining a court order demanding that Apple create software that would disable the password protection on the late terrorist’s phone. Apple will be keen to discover it so they can patch its security to protect its users – while malicious hackers will also be interested in trying to exploit it.
Details about the situation remain scarce, as federal officials said that they won’t provide specifics on who is helping the FBI get into the device.
Specifically, Cellebrite is able to uncover connections between the owner of a locked phone and the people they contacted.
“We must first test this method to ensure that it doesn’t destroy the data on the phone, but we remain cautiously optimistic”, she said.
If the method works, the government said in the filing, “it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple“.
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At the government’s request, a judge cancelled a court hearing in the matter that had been set for Tuesday. The Justice Department will update the court before April 5, and the case could be dropped if this method works. Most of those killed and wounded in the shooting were Farook’s colleagues who worked as health inspectors with San Bernardino County’s Environmental Health Services Division, who were attending a training seminar at the center the morning of the shooting.
