The U.S. Justice Department on Friday dropped its effort to force Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to help unlock an iPhone in a drug case in New York after someone provided authorities the passcode to access the device.
Washington – Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Thursday the agency paid more to get into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters than he will make in the remaining seven years and four months he has in his job.
Calling it an issue of victims’ rights, the Manhattan district attorney urged Congress to pass legislation that would require tech companies to give law enforcement a way to access information on encrypted phones and other devices.
Apple says authorities have “utterly failed” to show they need the company’s help to get data from a locked iPhone in a New York federal drug case, where the tech giant is continuing its fight with the government over access to customers’ phones.
Tens of millions of bestselling smartphones can easily be hacked by criminals using a £120 device that cracks their four-digit passcode.
Brooklyn, NY – If the U.S. Department of Justice asks a New York court to force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone, the technology company could push the government to reveal how it accessed the phone which belonged to a shooter in San Bernardino, a source familiar with the situation said.
The Justice Department has called off a high-profile legal battle with Apple after it was able to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters without the company’s help.
The extraordinary legal fight pitting the Obama administration against technology giant Apple Inc. ended unexpectedly after the FBI said it used a mysterious method without Apple’s help to hack into a California mass shooter’s iPhone.
Apple refused to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone for the FBI, but the Bureau might be interested to learn that there’s some seriously sensitive information that can be accessed on an iPhone without even having to unlock it.
Washington – The FBI says it successfully used a mysterious technique without Apple’s help to break into an iPhone linked to the gunman in a California mass shooting.