FBI hacks into terrorist’s iPhone without Apple

Ron Anders

My suspicion is that Apple and the FBI settled "Out of Court" and we'll just say it was an unidentified source. Apple can go on selling your phones and the FBI can chase their rabbits. This all will go away by week's end and the selfies can continue on. The smartphone target market is about as blindly apathetic as can possibly be. This is good for both the FBI and Apple.

Kevin Marois

Mike Mullikin wrote:

Who helped the FBI? (NSA, private tech firm, some random hacker, etc...) 1) Did they really crack the phone or was the FBI just trying to get out of a situation that was starting to head South on them?

Apple Did 2) Yes, Apple did. Neither the FBI nor Apple wanted this showdown. I bet Apple approached the FBI ad said "We'll let you in, but just this one time, and ONLY IF you drop this lawsuit and NEVER ask us again" Poof, they're in.

If it's not broken, fix it until it is

Lost User

Quote:

Oh gawd...you've set the Captain off again

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgghh!

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

Lost User

I don't think so for 2 reasons... If this leaked Apple would get killed by the media and the markets. 10's of billions of dollars at stake - maybe more. No way they cave so easily. Despite their early rhetoric, the FBI would never agree to a one and done. Never.

There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.

Kevin Marois

Think about this logically... ...if Apple's phones were hackable, it would have been done by now. This would have been front page news the moment it happened... LONG before now. Apples doesn't want to take a chance that the court would order them to help.

If it's not broken, fix it until it is

Lost User

I disagree - using that logic Apple never would have publicly denied the request.

There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.

Kevin Marois

They didn't deny it because their phones can be hacked. They said no because they don't want a precedent to be set. One it's done, the precedent is set, and the Gov can then order them to do it again, or worse, do other things. Apple would have been at the mercy of the any Gov agency that wanted whatever's on the phone. Of course Apple has the means to unlock a phone. THEY wrote it... They just don't want to be at the mercy of the gov. If someone other than Apple could get into their phones it would have been front page news long ago.

If it's not broken, fix it until it is

PaulC

Normally I would agree...But let's remember that RSA who's sole purpose is the encryption of data. Put a weakened algorithm into their product for 10 million dollars for the NSA. They have been found out and it hasn't hurt them. By all rights this company should be no more. But they are going strong.

Rage

I really do not understand all the fuss. The FBI needs to access the data, Apple provide them with the data, period. Privacy protection from Apple ? mwawawahhh. To protect a terrorist ? mwamwaaaawawawaaawawahhh.

Do not escape reality : improve reality !

Clifford Nelson

Images of 1984...George Orwell got is too right.

ledtech3

Well they did have several Offers to help do it if they would drop the back door Fiasco.

Minion no 5

Not if the serial number of the flash is part of the seed for the encryption.

RedDk

[^] I swear, noone listens to me ... :^)

ZurdoDev

Kevin Marois wrote:

if Apple's phones were hackable, it would have been done by now.

Everything is hackable. Just saying. :^)

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Lost User

I'm not saying that no corporation would cave to the Feds... but Apple ain't RSA. Apple is MUCH LARGER and MUCH MORE PUBLIC. Not to mention they are under a much bigger microscope. Apple fanbois hold Apple to much higher standards than Microsoft is held by Microsoft fanbois. Secondly, Microsoft fanbois (in all their numbers) hold Apple to an almost impossible standard in the media. The average Joe (ie. non fanbois) knows who Apple is and might own one or two of their products. Most people don't know who or what RSA is.

There are two types of people in this world: those that pronounce GIF with a soft G, and those who do not deserve to speak words, ever.

enhzflep

The rumour mill is saying that its a simple case of a NAND mirroring attack. You remove the NAND chips from the board and then monkey about with them before re-applying them - most likely by simply soldering a socket to the board instead and then simply plugging/unplugging them. Here's a demo of the technique: NAND Mirroring Concept Demo[^] Pretty low-tech when you think about it. You can buy a (cheap-n-nasty) reflow workstation for a couple of hundred bucks and the rest of the equipment is worth about the same. No need for an SEM or any of that kind of malarky.

Munchies_Matt

Yep, and keep it quiet.

Fueled By Decaff

You mean they finally tried the word scrawled on the back as the password?

Herbie Mountjoy

According to one news feed, Apple have aske dthe FBI how they did it so they can fix the encryption. Hmmm... I wonder what The FBI's response will be.....

I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.

Nicholas Marty

They should just sue the FBI if they don't tell them :-\