Hackers were paid a one-time flat fee by the FBI for their help in cracking into an iPhone used by a San Bernardino attacker, the Washington Post reported.
WASHINGTON: Professional hackers discovered at least one
software flaw that helped the FBI break into an iPhone used by a San
Bernardino attacker, the Washington Post reported Tuesday (Apr 12).
These hackers were paid a one-time flat fee for their help, the Post said, quoting people familiar with the case.
The discovery of the flaw was used to fashion a piece of
hardware that helped US authorities dodge the iPhone's four-digit
personal identification number without activating a feature that would
have erased all the data on the phone, the Post quoted the people
familiar with the case as saying.
The FBI would not have had trouble cracking the four-digit
PIN. The tricky part, in fact, was to deactivate a feature on the phone
that erases data stored on the device after 10 incorrect tries at
guessing the code, the Post said.
In the San Bernardino attacks, Syed Farook and wife Tashfeen
Malik killed 14 people on Dec 2 before dying in a firefight with
police. Two other phones linked to the pair were found destroyed after
the attack.
The government filed suit to try to force Apple to help it
break into a phone used by one of the shooters. Apple, backed by other
tech giants such as Google and Facebook, refused, citing concerns over
digital security and privacy.
The FBI announced late last month that it had managed to
break into the phone with the help of an undisclosed third party, ending
the legal standoff.
- AFP/rw
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