Los Angeles: The FBI has unlocked the iPhone used by a Pakistani-origin gunman in the San Bernardino attack and accessed the data on the device without Apple’s help, the US government said on Tuesday ending a legal battle with the tech- giant that saw authorities pitted against the Silicon Valley.
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 bySyed Farook, who alongwith his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 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.
However, 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 governmentat the last minute and criticism from some quarters over the FBI's failure to hack into an iPhone on its own.
Apple's faceoff with the government started just over five weeks ago, when the Justice Department obtained a court order compelling Apple to unlock phone.
