Apple and FBI were in such a dispute. While the Department of Justice (Departament of Justice, or DoJ) of the United States, by legal means, wanted to force the company to create a backdoor on an iPhone used by a terrorist (to extract data from the device), Ma vehemently denied that, by creating something like this, "anyone" could have access to such a tool and the security of millions of users would be at risk.
The day before the hearing that would most likely decide everything, the FBI asked the court to suspend the case temporarily because they would have found a way to unlock the device and would need time to test the method to see if everything actually worked as expected.
Yesterday, through a petition, the FBI reported that it was able to successfully unlock the iPhone and extract data from the device without giving further details about the method used and that, because of that, it no longer needs Apple's help. In other words, the DoJ has everything to abandon legal action against Ma.
In a second statement, the DoJ made it clear that despite having managed to resolve the issue involving this terrorist's iPhone (without informing whether the information found was valuable or not), it remains a priority for the government to ensure that digital information can be accessed by security departments and intelligence agencies to “protect national security and public security”. In addition, the DoJ explained that "continue to use all available options to complete this mission, including seeking the cooperation of manufacturers and relying on the creativity of both the public and private sectors".
It is worth noting that the FBI had said it was * impossible * to unlock the device without Apple's help. Now, with this news, it is clear that the government is weakening out of the dispute, which could help Apple in other court cases in which it is also being forced to cooperate and to unlock devices of people investigated by justice, such as one in New York.
Apple made the following statement about the case:
Right from the start, we opposed the FBI’s request that Apple create a backdoor on the iPhone because we believe this is wrong and would set a dangerous precedent. As a result of the government's withdrawal, none of this happened. This case should never have been opened.
We will continue to assist security departments in their investigations, as we have always done so far, and we will continue to increase the security of our products as threats and attacks against our data become increasingly frequent and sophisticated.
Apple deeply believes that people in the United States and around the world deserve data protection, security and privacy. Sacrificing for one another only puts people and countries at greater risk.
This case raised questions that deserve a national debate about our civil liberties, collective security and privacy. Apple remains committed to participating in this discussion.
On the method used by the FBI itself the government apparently had the help of an Israeli company, not necessarily informing Apple how they unlocked the device. For the company, of course, knowing how the FBI managed to get their hands on iPhone data is important, as it would help make iOS and its products even more secure. However, back in 2014, the White House said the government would consider the pros and cons of opening up these discovered vulnerabilities.
Only the method used doesn’t seem to be that secret. Taking into account that the iPhone 5c does not have the Secure Enclave (used on newer iPhones to store sensitive data like, for example, the device password), chances are the FBI used the technique even commented on by Edward Snowden (copy / clone the iPhone flash memory and try to guess the password device without worrying about losing data after 10 wrong attempts) to be able to access the information.
If so, it is an alternative that does not work on newer iPhones, that is, a “hole” already closed by Apple.
(via AppleInsider, The Verge, Ars Technica)
