FBI-Apple case: Investigators break into dead San Bernardino gunman's iPhone

[steven36]

The FBI has managed to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino gunman without Apple's help, ending a court case, the US justice department says.

Apple had been resisting a court order issued last month requiring the firm to write new software to allow officials to access Rizwan Farook's phone.

 

But officials on Monday said that it had been accessed independently and asked for the order to be withdrawn.

 

Rizwan Farook and his wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino in December.

 

They were later shot dead by police. US officials said Mr Farook's wide, Tashfeen Malik, pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State on social media on the day of the shooting.

 

Last week, prosecutors said "an outside party" had demonstrated a possible way of unlocking the iPhone without the need to seek Apple's help.

 

A court hearing with Apple was postponed at the request of the justice department, while it investigated new ways of accessing the phone.

 

At the time, Apple said it did not know how to gain access, and said it hoped that the government would share with them any vulnerabilities of the iPhone that might come to light.

 

On Monday a statement by Eileen Decker, the top federal prosecutor in California, said investigators had received the help of "a third party", but did not specify who that was.

Investigators had "a solemn commitment to the victims of the San Bernardino shooting", she said.

 

"It remains a priority for the government to ensure that law enforcement can obtain crucial digital information to protect national security and public safety, either with co-operation from relevant parties, or through the court system when cooperation fails," the statement added.

 

An Israeli newspaper last week reported that data forensics experts at cybersecurity firm Cellebrite, which has its headquarters in Israel, are involved in the case.

 

Cellebrite told the BBC that it works with the FBI but would not say more.

 

Its website, however, states that one of its tools can extract and decode data from the iPhone 5C, the model in question, among other locked handsets.

 

The court order had led to a vigorous debate over privacy, with Apple saying allowing officials access to users' data would set a "dangerous precedent".

 

The company received support from other tech giants including Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.

 

And earlier this month, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned enforcing the order risked opening a "Pandora's box".

FBI director James Comey said it was the "hardest question" he had tackled in his job.

 

However, he said, law enforcement saved lives, rescued children and prevented terror attacks using search warrants that gave it access to information on mobile phones.

Analysis: Dave Lee, BBC North America technology reporter

A court case that had the US technology industry united against the FBI has, for the time being, gone away.

Now this debate moves into more uncertain times. The US government has knowledge of a security vulnerability that in theory weakens Apple devices around the world.

To protect its reputation, Apple will rush to find and fix that flaw. Assuming it can do that, this row is back to square one.

Read more from Dave

 

The Source

 

[Holmes]

You can extract the memory from the computer chip (suggested by a user in these forums) and I figured something like that is possible.  Whats going to anger me is if they dont find information on the phone and the terrorists took thelaw enforcement and the fbi through a wild goose chase for nothing not going to get to angry as the terrorists would have wanted that.  If they do or did find information on the secured iphone then very good job a job well done to the fbi and I think they should drop this case against apple (Im happy apply never threw in the towel).

[VileTouch]

21 minutes ago, Holmes said:

You can extract the memory from the computer chip (suggested by a user in these forums) and I figured something like that is possible.

of course it is possible, but is encrypted, and the only way to decrypt it is inside an iphone...inside THE iphone it was encrypted in. and it comes with a hardcoded 5 strikes wipeout system. so no. it's not that simple.

[CODYQX4]

1 hour ago, Holmes said:

You can extract the memory from the computer chip (suggested by a user in these forums) and I figured something like that is possible.  Whats going to anger me is if they dont find information on the phone and the terrorists took thelaw enforcement and the fbi through a wild goose chase for nothing not going to get to angry as the terrorists would have wanted that.  If they do or did find information on the secured iphone then very good job a job well done to the fbi and I think they should drop this case against apple (Im happy apply never threw in the towel).

The terrorist had several ones and physically destroyed all of them except this one, a work phone that would be a bad idea to use for planning attacks.

 

Most likely the FBI knows there's nothing of value and they just wanted to use the T-word to grab even more power and pass stupid laws that hurt everyone except the actual bad guys who will just use an open source app or self-made app, instead of an app/device backed by a company the government can just put the thumb screws to (or pretend to so the company saves face while they're actually eager to hand over the info/keys).

[steven36]

1 hour ago, CODYQX4 said:

The terrorist had several ones and physically destroyed all of them except this one, a work phone that would be a bad idea to use for planning attacks.

 

Most likely the FBI knows there's nothing of value and they just wanted to use the T-word to grab even more power and pass stupid laws that hurt everyone except the actual bad guys who will just use an open source app or self-made app, instead of an app/device backed by a company the government can just put the thumb screws to (or pretend to so the company saves face while they're actually eager to hand over the info/keys).

To me this just shows you cant really put you're  faith in technology  , If this encryption  was used for what it was meant for to keep the average  joe out it would done it's job but it was used for evil  not what it was intended  for so law enforcement got involved .  If you done something really bad  like stole  a million dollars if you didn't take  it somewhere and bury it were no one knew  they would just search you're house and take it.

 

If you're not above the law in you're  own home what makes you think you would be on the public internet or a phone device ?  If you mess up they will seize what ever they want . The thing about encryption the U.S Government have been cracking it since 1917 (99 years) They 1st cracked it to see what the Germans was saying  . If someone invented it and made it public there will be some to figure how to crack it sooner or latter . Its man made . In this case the FBI  didn't really do it they paid some others to do for them because there not NSA  they dont have the resources . So there best resource was money in this case.  Selling programs to make back doors in software  is a business so why put you're faith in something they made a business  out of ?

 

Most people dont bother to password  there phones  or pcs at all .

[KP333]

SAN FRANCISCO — The Justice Department said on Monday that it had found a way to unlock an iPhone without help from Apple, allowing the agency to withdraw its legal effort to compel the tech company to assist in a mass-shooting investigation.

The decision to drop the case — which involved demanding Apple’s help to open an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, a gunman in the December shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people — ends a legal standoff between the government and the world’s most valuable public company. The case had become increasingly contentious as Apple refused to help the authorities, inciting a debate about whether privacy or security was more important.

Yet law enforcement’s ability to now unlock an iPhone through an alternative method raises new uncertainties, including questions about the strength of security in Apple devices. The development also creates potential for new conflicts between the government and Apple about the method used to open the device and whether that technique will be disclosed. Lawyers for Apple have previously said the company would want to know the procedure used to crack open the smartphone, yet the government might classify the method.

“From a legal standpoint, what happened in the San Bernardino case doesn’t mean the fight is over,” said Esha Bhandari, a staff lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. She notes that the government generally goes through a process whereby it decides whether to disclose information about certain vulnerabilities so that manufacturers can patch them.

“I would hope they would give that information to Apple so that it can patch any weaknesses,” she said, “but if the government classifies the tool, that suggests it may not.”

In a two-paragraph filing on Monday, the Justice Department said it had “now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple.”

F.B.I. investigators have begun examining the contents of the phone but would not say what, if anything, they have identified so far. A senior federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said it was possible that law enforcement might not find anything useful on the phone.

The Justice Department also remained tight-lipped about how it was able to finally get into the smartphone after weeks of furious public debate.

A second law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reporters in a conference call said that a company outside the government provided the F.B.I. with the means to get into the phone used by Mr. Farook, which is an iPhone 5C running Apple’s iOS 9 mobile operating system. The official would not name the company or discuss how it was accomplished, nor would officials say whether the process would ultimately be shared with Apple.

Photo

Syed Rizwan Farook Credit U.S. Customs and Border Protection, via Associated Press

Melanie Newman, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, signaled in a statement that the broader battle over access to digital data from devices was not over.

“It remains a priority for the government to ensure that law enforcement can obtain crucial digital information to protect national security and public safety, either with cooperation from relevant parties, or through the court system when cooperation fails,” Ms. Newman said. “We will continue to pursue all available options for this mission, including seeking the cooperation of manufacturers and relying upon the creativity of both the public and private sectors.”

“This case should never have been brought,” Apple said in a statement, adding that it would continue to help with law enforcement investigations.

Given that the F.B.I. may never tell Apple how it forced open the iPhone, the company also said that it would “continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated.”

The conflict between Apple and the government erupted openly last month when a federal magistrate judge in California ordered the Silicon Valley company to help unlock the smartphone used by Mr. Farook. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, opposed the court order in a public letter, saying that “compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk.”

The resistance led to heated rhetoric from both sides in dueling court filings, and the issue spurred debates — finding its way onto late night talk shows, and dividing the public. Apple and the Justice Department had been due in court last week in Riverside, Calif., and the case was seemingly headed toward appeals and even the Supreme Court.

Then last Monday, the Justice Department said it had been approached by a third party with a potential alternative method for opening the iPhone.

The Justice Department’s cracking of the iPhone has implications for other cases that involve locked iPhones. Last month, a federal magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York refused to grant an order, requested by the government, that asked Apple to extract data from an iPhone used by a drug dealer in Brooklyn. The Justice Department is in the process of appealing that decision.

The federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reporters on Monday said it was premature to say whether the method it used to open the phone in the San Bernardino case could be used on phones in other cases. The phone in the Brooklyn case was an iPhone 5S running the iOS 7 mobile software.

“Courts should be skeptical going forward when the government claims it has no other option besides compelling a device maker’s assistance,” said Riana Pfefferkorn, a cryptography fellow at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.

“Now that the F.B.I. has accessed this iPhone, it should disclose the method for doing so to Apple,” she added. “Apple ought to have the chance to fix that security issue, which likely affects many other iPhones.”

Katie Benner reported from San Francisco and Eric Lichtblau from Washington.

 

Source: nytimes

[straycat19]

2 hours ago, steven36 said:

Most people dont bother to password  there phones  or pcs at all .

 

It really is a waste of time.  PC encryption is easily broken by high end forensic software and has been for many years.  Though phones are locked/encrypted, the data is just stored in an encrypted container so the only real security would be to delete the container but then I wouldn't bet against someone being able to recover it and the data in it.  Encryption has gotten to the point where it could be termed a false sense of security. 

[Batu69]

Thread has been merged.

[steven36]

4 hours ago, straycat19 said:

 

It really is a waste of time.  PC encryption is easily broken by high end forensic software and has been for many years.  Though phones are locked/encrypted, the data is just stored in an encrypted container so the only real security would be to delete the container but then I wouldn't bet against someone being able to recover it and the data in it.  Encryption has gotten to the point where it could be termed a false sense of security. 

On the world wide web it  could be a false sense of security because you're on the open internet if has been compromised  . If  US law enforcement had  to follow  the same laws that civilians do it would be a crime to  break it . The police has been using  encryption for scanners  in many states  with sucess for many years since the 80s  and  its illegal for civilians to decrypt  it.  So in a sense the government gives law enforcement  a free ticket  to break the law... law enforcement had encryption long before  civilians did and if they would outlaw  it only bad guys  that dont care to break the law  and  law enforcement would have it.

[vibranium]

Everybody can stand down now. Both sides can hold their heads high.

 

And now we will find ... kitty pictures.

 

 

[steven36]

26 minutes ago, vibranium said:

Everybody can stand down now. Both sides can hold their heads high.

 

And now we will find ... kitty pictures.

 

 

No its not over with  its just over with tell the next time it happens again.
 

Quote

 

As some experts have noted, if the FBI can crack a single iPhone, it’s possible that others may be able to do so as well. At this juncture, it seems like Apple has no choice but to look into ways of beefing up security.

 

The question is, what happens the next time there’s an attack and a terrorist is found in possession of an iPhone?

 

Given the way this case played out, with not nearly enough actual debate and no conclusion as whether Apple is legally bound to help the government, it’s possible that we’ll see a rerun of this episode sometime in the future. http://thenextweb.com/apple/2016/03/29/apple-responds-fbi-iphone-hack-case-never-brought/

 

A case with no real judgment  is still open to debate by law enforcement . How does Apple be proud about saying in court they had no way to unlock there own software  but  the 1st time it was put to the real test it failed and someone else unlocked it ?

 

[frogman]

Did anyone mention to the Justice Dept, Apple , Google or Microsoft that the war on terror was a Bush Family Legacy... ie 9-11 was an inside job conducted with Alias... Israel and the British Crown.... As with all things ... War is a Rich Mans Trick... go ask your Lawyer...