FBI bypasses Apple, unlocks iPhone

The Department of Justice said FBI was able to use a new method suggested by a third party to hack into an iPhone that was used by Syed Farook, who along with his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California on December 2 last, before being shot by the police. 

As a result, the government “no longer requires the assistance from Apple” and is dropping its efforts to compel Apple to crack its own iPhone encryption against its will. The one-month-old legal standoff saw tech giants of Silicon Valley like Facebook and Google rallying behind Apple, which was fiercely opposed to unlocking the iPhone on the grounds that it will compromise user privacy. 

But, FBI’s sudden success in circumventing Apple’s security measures might raise new questions about whether Apple’s products are truly ironclad. It will also lead to heightened speculation over the “outside party” that assisted the government at the last minute — and criticism from some quarters over the FBI’s failure to hack into an iPhone on its own. 

“Our decision to conclude the litigation was based solely on the fact that, with the recent assistance of a third party, we are now able to unlock that iPhone,” US Attorney Eileen M Decker said in a statement. 

Apple’s face-off with the government started just over five weeks ago when the Justice Department obtained a court order compelling Apple to assist the FBI in bypassing the lock screen of the iPhone 5C that Farook had used.