The FBI successfully broke into a gunman’s iPhone, but it’s still very angry at Apple

CyberTech

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Nov 10, 2017
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After months of trying, the FBI successfully broke into iPhones belonging to the gunman responsible for a deadly shooting at Pensacola Naval Air Station in December 2019, and it now claims he had associations with terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Investigators managed to do so without Apple’s help, but Attorney General William Barr and FBI director Christopher Wray both voiced strong frustration with the iPhone maker at a press conference on Monday morning.

Both officials say that encryption on the gunman’s devices severely hampered the investigation. “Thanks to the great work of the FBI — and no thanks to Apple — we were able to unlock Alshamrani’s phones,” said Barr, who lamented the months and “large sums of tax-payer dollars” it took to get into devices of Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who killed three US sailors and injured eight other people on December 6th.

Apple has said it provided investigators with iCloud data it had available for Alshamrani’s account but did not provide any assistance bypassing iOS’s device encryption. Without that help, authorities spent many weeks trying to break in on their own.
 

RoboMan

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Call me paranoid, but I believe this is bs.

Under US laws. any business, big or small, that is settled in United States, is forced to cooperate with the government or its derivates if an investigation is under course and they have a valid warrant. Therefore, this theatrical play that Apple somewhat now cares about its user's privacy and is willing to go against the law which basically grants it its billion dollars, for me, is bs. I strongly believe this is just marketing to keep users calm and make Apple stronger.

Apple also claimed:
It is because we take our responsibility to national security so seriously that we do not believe in the creation of a backdoor — one which will make every device vulnerable to bad actors who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. There is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys, and the American people do not have to choose between weakening encryption and effective investigations.
Which I also find bs. I have no doubts FBI and CIA have enough resources and ties with Apple and similar businesses in order to unlock any kind of protection that built-in within these phones.
 

blacksheep

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Mar 8, 2020
181
Call me paranoid, but I believe this is bs.

Under US laws. any business, big or small, that is settled in United States, is forced to cooperate with the government or its derivates if an investigation is under course and they have a valid warrant. Therefore, this theatrical play that Apple somewhat now cares about its user's privacy and is willing to go against the law which basically grants it its billion dollars, for me, is bs. I strongly believe this is just marketing to keep users calm and make Apple stronger.

Apple also claimed:

Which I also find bs. I have no doubts FBI and CIA have enough resources and ties with Apple and similar businesses in order to unlock any kind of protection that built-in within these phones.
You are most likely right and I feel the same way.
 

scorpionv

Level 2
Apr 20, 2020
87
Under US laws. any business, big or small, that is settled in United States, is forced to cooperate with the government or its derivates if an investigation is under course and they have a valid warrant.

I seriously doubt it. Why would the Feds make a big deal of this, if they had a way to force Apple to cooperate?

Interesting read about this:
 

Freki123

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Aug 10, 2013
737
On the one hand they say the got problems to get the data of an iphone, on the other hand zero day broker stop buying bugs/exploits because the have enough... Up to you what you believe now :D
 

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