Justice Department Withdrawing from Apple Case
The New York Times is reporting that the outside party engaged to unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone has been successful, and the Department of Justice is withdrawing from its legal action against Apple. It’s unclear what, if any, useful data was found, or if the FBI will publicize the contents of the iPhone or share with Apple how the information was accessed. We wonder how much money the misguided case cost Apple, but there’s no question that the company’s principled defense also generated some significant loyalty.
So the outside party was able to break the iPhone security? Holy crap! I'd like to know how it was possible.
I'm sure Apple would too. :-)
many ideas have already been postulated for this. It's not a hard concept to understand how. Once they have the device in hand, getting data out of it is almost assured. The foolish and amazing things is that the FBI made such a big stink about it in the first place.
Heh.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
—Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
As a somewhat paranoid observer, that the Gov can crack the phone but not say how it did it (something Apple wants to know; the "how they did it" of) raises some interesting questions about how any information, at least any "evidence" that would be admissible could stand if it boils down to "this is information we found on that phone, but you can't see it yourself in the original by looking into the phone yourself." Such a possibility raises distinct potential to "frame" and then "indict", a result that could, even absent a "guilty" verdict, tar and remain associated with the phone's "owner" or "user" indefinitely or for all time. Egad.