The FBI paid over a million dollars to an outside company to get into the iPhone used by one of the terrorists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino County, California, in December last year.
Although the exact amount remain a state secret, was the very FBI Director James Comey, who set a threshold during a security conference organized by the Aspen Institute in London.
asked by moderator on the amount paid by the FBI, Comey said, “.. Much more than the total of my wages until the end of my term, which ends in seven years and four months”
Being public that the director of the FBI earns $ 185,100 a year before tax – and assuming that your salary will not change until 2023 – the foreign company received at least one million and 350 thousand dollars in exchange for the secret to enter the iPhone Syed Farook, the American who launched the attack along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik.
Just before the attack, Farook and Malik (who was born in Pakistan and spent most of his life in Saudi Arabia) took the oath of allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State and eventually killed by the police in the chase and exchange of fire.
discord iPhone
During the search , the research team found two destroyed mobile phones belonging to the couple and also an iPhone intact 5C but with the activated lock code – four-digit code one that many users smartphone set to prevent other people have access to the content of their devices.
the phone was used by Farook but belonged to the Department of Public Health of San Bernardino county, which was his employer.
After having lost an opportunity to make a backup to iCloud service everything was on the phone in question – for allowing the San Bernardino county to change the password Apple account associated with the device – the FBI he asked a court to compel Apple to create a special version of its operating system iOS9.
the court agreed to the request of the FBI and ordered Apple to create a program that would remove two major security measures the phone in question, which were preventing the FBI to have access to content. – eliminate ten attempts to limit to hit the unlock code and reduce the waiting time between each attempt
in this way, FBI could connect your phone to a computer and inject millions of combinations to find the right, without running the risk that the operating system erase everything that was in the phone at the end of ten attempts allowed source.
at the time, the FBI argued that only Apple could give access to the phone in question, but the company refused to create a root program that eliminates the security settings with the argument that this program could fall into the wrong hands and that would jeopardize the safety of all mobile phones 5C model with the operating system iOS9 -. not just the mobile phone used by Syed Farook
Apple accuses FBI of wanting “the equivalent of cancer of computer programs “
But hours before the trial start, less than a month, the FBI withdrew the complaint against Apple and revealed that he had managed to get into the terrorist cell phone with the help of an outside company. The federal police never revealed the name of the company and said he paid a lump sum, but the statements of James Comey, on Thursday night, led to the first official estimate. – At least a million and a $ 350,000
security flaws Hunters
the fight between technology companies and the police and intelligence agencies has created a specialized small business market to identify security flaws in operating systems or sites like Facebook, for example, which are then sold to various sources, including the own technology companies, so that later can plug these security holes. But in these cases the values tend to be relatively low, in the house of a few hundred thousand dollars. According to computer security experts, a value greater than one million dollars indicates that the FBI has no intention to share with Apple a fault detected on iPhone 5C models with the operating system iOS9.
“These rewards are defined by several factors. the cost of maintaining a failure secret is very high. When it sells at a high price, you must be comfortable with the possibility that the person who sells the failure is likely to do something malicious “he told New York Times Alex Rice, co-founder of HackerOne security company – one startup that is dedicated precisely to detect security flaws in order to improve . protection devices, programs and sites
at the same conference organized by the Aspen Institute the director of the FBI reiterated that failure to allow only get in iPhone 5C models with the operating system iOS9 – the latest models, such as 5S, 6 and 6S, have greater protection because the introduction of the code depends on an interplay between software (the operating system) and hardware (a small computer built into the phone, known as Security Enclave, which completes the key to entry into the mobile phone).
in the case of iPhone Syed Farook, the FBI admitted that he has not yet found any information relevant to the investigation, but says he still hopes that location data can contribute to trace the steps of the terrorists before the attack and the minutes that followed
Apple vs FBI.: do not know where it will stop
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