Quote : " FBI Director James Comey says the tool his agents bought and used to unlock the San Bernardino killer's iPhone will only work on a "narrow slice" of phones.
On Wednesday, Comey gave a lecture at Ohio's Kenyon College's Center for the Study of American Democracy in which he said the exploit only works on iOS 9 iPhone 5Cs. Apple only sold 24 million of them. That narrow. The FBI boss wouldn't say where the tool came from.
"The FBI is very good at keeping secrets,"
he said. "The people we bought this from – I know a fair amount about them and I have a high degree of confidence that they are very good at protecting it and that their motivations align with ours."
There has been a discussion within the US government about whether or not to tell Apple about the security flaw exploited by the tool, Comey said. The Feds may spill the beans eventually. But at the moment, telling Cook & Co would just mean the vulnerability would be fixed and the agency would be "back where we started from."
Nevertheless, people should not worry about the FBI's actions, he said, since every agent receives training in the importance of due process and respecting individual privacy rights. Comey said that he has a glass-topped desk at the bureau and in it is a letter from J Edgar Hoover requesting clearance to wiretap Martin Luther King – as a reminder of how important privacy is. "
...over time the exploit will leak out and be used by malware writers unless it is patched. Sleep tight, iPhone users. "
On Wednesday, Comey gave a lecture at Ohio's Kenyon College's Center for the Study of American Democracy in which he said the exploit only works on iOS 9 iPhone 5Cs. Apple only sold 24 million of them. That narrow. The FBI boss wouldn't say where the tool came from.
"The FBI is very good at keeping secrets,"
he said. "The people we bought this from – I know a fair amount about them and I have a high degree of confidence that they are very good at protecting it and that their motivations align with ours."There has been a discussion within the US government about whether or not to tell Apple about the security flaw exploited by the tool, Comey said. The Feds may spill the beans eventually. But at the moment, telling Cook & Co would just mean the vulnerability would be fixed and the agency would be "back where we started from."
Nevertheless, people should not worry about the FBI's actions, he said, since every agent receives training in the importance of due process and respecting individual privacy rights. Comey said that he has a glass-topped desk at the bureau and in it is a letter from J Edgar Hoover requesting clearance to wiretap Martin Luther King – as a reminder of how important privacy is. "
...over time the exploit will leak out and be used by malware writers unless it is patched. Sleep tight, iPhone users. "
