FBI doesn’t have to share iPhone 5C hacking details
A COLLECTION OF MEDIA OUTFITS have come away empty-handed after taking the FBI to court in an attempt to find out who it got to unlock the iPhone 5C involved in the San Bernardino shooting of 2015
The FBI is not empty-handed because it has unlocked the iPhone in question already. It originally asked Tim Cook to give it a hand, but the Apple CEO did not want to play along and it had to take another route and pay a company to crack it like an egg.
USA Today, The Associated Press and Vice Media all petitioned for information, but thanks to a judge they have nothing to go on. A report on the Per Politico site laments the court’s decision and the words of US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan who found in favour of the Feds.
The shooting and the need to crack into the phone pulled a lot of people in and incited a lot of passion. The FBI quickly found out that it was not going to get any help from Apple and so turned to the open market. This was a successful move for it, but it declined all opportunities to reveal who helped it out or how much it paid for the assistance.
This was a successful move for it, but it declined all opportunities to reveal who helped it out or how much it paid for the assistance.
Chutkan ruled in favour of keeping schtum because of national security reasons and because the FBI does not, in her opinion, have to justify its spending and that this kind of thing is not covered by Freedom of Information requests.
“It is logical and plausible that the vendor may be less capable than the FBI of protecting its proprietary information in the face of a cyber-attack,” she wrote in her judgement .
“The FBI’s conclusion that releasing the name of the vendor to the general public could put the vendor’s systems, and thereby crucial information about the technology, at risk of incursion, is a reasonable one.” µ
