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The FBI is testing a code-based way to get into the San Bernardino iPhone The FBI is testing a code-based way to get into the San Bernardino iPhone
(about 1 hour later)
The FBI is testing a possible method to help unlock a terrorist’s iPhone on a number of different devices and operating systems before it tries the actual phone in question, law enforcement officials said Thursday.The FBI is testing a possible method to help unlock a terrorist’s iPhone on a number of different devices and operating systems before it tries the actual phone in question, law enforcement officials said Thursday.
The agency anticipates it will soon be able to test the approach on the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., attack, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The agency anticipates it will soon be able to test the approach on the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., attack, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The solution, which officials said was brought to them by an outside party over the weekend, is aimed at replicating what the government had tried to force the phone-maker Apple to do: Write code to dismantle a security feature on the iPhone 5C that automatically erases data on the phone after 10 incorrect attempts to guess the numeric passcode. The solution, which officials said was brought to them by an outside party over the weekend, is aimed at replicating what the government had tried to force the phone’s maker, Apple, to do — write code to dismantle a security feature on the iPhone 5C that automatically erases data on the phone after 10 incorrect attempts to guess the numeric passcode.
The bureau is testing the approach first on other devices to try to catch any errors that might inadvertently erase the data that investigators are trying to recover. “Caution is the rule of the land,” one official said.The bureau is testing the approach first on other devices to try to catch any errors that might inadvertently erase the data that investigators are trying to recover. “Caution is the rule of the land,” one official said.
When asked whether the outside party helping the agency was a company that had worked with the FBI before, Comey said Thursday, “It is someone who came forward with an idea.” When asked whether the outside party helping the agency was a company that had worked with the FBI before, Director James B. Comey said Thursday that “it is someone who came forward with an idea.”
The government was set on Tuesday to face off with attorneys for Apple in a Riverside, Calif., courthouse over whether the Justice Department could force the company to write the software that might help the FBI in its investigation of the Dec. 2 attack that killed 14 people. The government was set on Tuesday to face off with attorneys for Apple in a Riverside, Calif., courthouse over whether the Justice Department could force the company to write the software that might help the FBI in its investigation of the Dec. 2 attack, which killed 14 people.
But late on Monday, the department in a surprise move said the hearing had been postponed to give the FBI time to test the method from an outside party. [Apple vows to resist FBI call to crack iPhone linked to San Bernardino attack]
But in a surprise move late Monday, the department said the hearing had been postponed to give the FBI time to test the method from an outside party.
“We tried it on Sunday,” Comey said Thursday. “It looked like it might work.”“We tried it on Sunday,” Comey said Thursday. “It looked like it might work.”
Comey rejected the idea, raised by some critics, that the government misled the public about needing Apple’s help to break into shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone. Comey rejected the idea, raised by some critics, that the government misled the public about needing Apple’s help to break into the iPhone used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
The government tried everything it could think of and “asked everyone” it thought would be able to help before turning to the courts, Comey said.The government tried everything it could think of and “asked everyone” it thought would be able to help before turning to the courts, Comey said.
But the idea that it was less than truthful when it said it had no alternatives, he said, “is silly.” What happened, he said, is the global attention surrounding the case “has stimulated a marketplace of creative people to try to come up with ideas.”But the idea that it was less than truthful when it said it had no alternatives, he said, “is silly.” What happened, he said, is the global attention surrounding the case “has stimulated a marketplace of creative people to try to come up with ideas.”
The government has until April 3 to tell the court if it wants to proceed with the case. [FBI: We may not need Apple’s help with that iPhone, but we didn’t lie about it]
The FBI’s cry for help — while directed at Apple — has unleashed a flurry of activity among a close-knit group of security professionals specializing in so-called mobile forensics — the dark arts of finding ways to retrieve data from the growing number of smartphones and mobile devices flooding the market. Colleagues and even rivals furiously have been comparing notes on the costs, risks and merits of various techniques, send tips to the government and debate the limitations of the agency’s own technical capabilities. The government has until April 3 to tell the court whether it wants to proceed with the case.
One idea being passed around the security community was a technique that requires removing the phone’s chip and making thousands of copies of the encrypted data on it. Once the data is copied, the chip is put back on the phone, and the specialist can attempt to guess the passcode. If he guesses incorrectly — he has 10 attempts before the chip’s data gets wiped — he replaces the data with one of the copies. The FBI’s cry for help, while directed at Apple, has unleashed a flurry of activity among a close-knit group of security professionals specializing in “mobile forensics” — the dark arts of finding ways to retrieve data from the growing number of smartphones and mobile devices flooding the market. Colleagues and even rivals have been furiously comparing notes on the costs, risks and merits of various techniques, sending tips to the government and debating the limitations of the agency’s own technical capabilities.
But FBI officials said they were going in a different direction. “I’ve heard that [method] a lot,” Comey said at the press conference. “It doesn’t work.” One idea being passed around the security community was a technique that requires removing the phone’s chip and making thousands of copies of the encrypted data on it. Once the data is copied, the chip is put back on the phone and a specialist can attempt to guess the passcode. If he guesses incorrectly — he has 10 attempts before the chip’s data gets wiped — he replaces the data with one of the copies.
But FBI officials said they were going in a different direction. “I’ve heard that [method] a lot,” Comey said at the news conference. “It doesn’t work.”
Andrea Peterson contributed to this report.Andrea Peterson contributed to this report.