FBI Tells Apple They Don't Need Their Geek's Help
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 11:44 pm
Department of Justice drops Apple case after FBI cracks iPhone
By Sean Sposito
Updated 4:05 pm, Monday, March 28, 2016
The Department of Justice on Monday announced it was dropping an effort to have Apple defeat privacy safeguards built into its software after it succeeded in reading data off of a phone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
Efforts to bypass that device’s pass code without Apple’s intervention proved successful, said the Department of Justice.
The iPhone’s operating system is designed to prevent such attempts, but security researchers have identified some weaknesses in that software.
The Department of Justice announced last week that it had obtained technical help from an unnamed party, prompting it to ask the court to postpone a hearing originally scheduled for last Tuesday on an order the government was seeking to compel Apple’s assistance.
It wasn’t immediately clear the methods that the “outside party” took to read the data.
“As the government noted in its filing today, the FBI has now successfully retrieved the data stored on the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple required by this Court Order,” said DOJ spokeswoman Melanie Newman. “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. 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.”
In February, a federal magistrate in Riverside, Calif. ordered Apple to write software altering the iPhone’s security protections, which would help federal agents more easily bypass that phone’s encryption.
Apple had contended that such a measure would give the government a “dangerous power” to weaken security protections in devices used by hundreds of millions of people.
The Cupertino company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Newman said that the FBI is currently reviewing the information on the phone, “consistent with standard investigatory procedures.”
The government’s withdrawal in this case does not mean that the battle over encryption is over, said security researcher Dan Kaminsky, who has publicly supported Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case.
“It’s not merely that the war is continuing,” he said. “Damage has been done. The largest technology company in the world just had to spend an enormous amount of its resources and attention not making better products, not making more secure products, but fighting off a demand for insecurity.”
source
By Sean Sposito
Updated 4:05 pm, Monday, March 28, 2016
The Department of Justice on Monday announced it was dropping an effort to have Apple defeat privacy safeguards built into its software after it succeeded in reading data off of a phone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
Efforts to bypass that device’s pass code without Apple’s intervention proved successful, said the Department of Justice.
The iPhone’s operating system is designed to prevent such attempts, but security researchers have identified some weaknesses in that software.
The Department of Justice announced last week that it had obtained technical help from an unnamed party, prompting it to ask the court to postpone a hearing originally scheduled for last Tuesday on an order the government was seeking to compel Apple’s assistance.
It wasn’t immediately clear the methods that the “outside party” took to read the data.
“As the government noted in its filing today, the FBI has now successfully retrieved the data stored on the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple required by this Court Order,” said DOJ spokeswoman Melanie Newman. “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. 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.”
In February, a federal magistrate in Riverside, Calif. ordered Apple to write software altering the iPhone’s security protections, which would help federal agents more easily bypass that phone’s encryption.
Apple had contended that such a measure would give the government a “dangerous power” to weaken security protections in devices used by hundreds of millions of people.
The Cupertino company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Newman said that the FBI is currently reviewing the information on the phone, “consistent with standard investigatory procedures.”
The government’s withdrawal in this case does not mean that the battle over encryption is over, said security researcher Dan Kaminsky, who has publicly supported Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case.
“It’s not merely that the war is continuing,” he said. “Damage has been done. The largest technology company in the world just had to spend an enormous amount of its resources and attention not making better products, not making more secure products, but fighting off a demand for insecurity.”
source
