FBI Examines Other Apple Devices To Unlock By Hacking

In order to find out the extent of its newly acquired hacking technique, the FBI is testing the method on other versions of the iPhone.

According to the most recent news, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has busied itself in finding out the extent of its newly acquired “hacking techniques.” Therefore, it is now testing the latest method it used to hack into the terrorist’s phone in order to find out whether the method fall right for other versions of the iPhones

The highly anticipated showdown between Apple and the U.S. government finally ceased when the government announced later last month that it had finally unlocked the terrorist’s phone after seeking the help from an undisclosed outside third party. The government hasn’t also disclosed the information extracted after decrypting the phone’s data. It, however, has dropped its legal case against the tech giant.

The Cupertino, Calif. firm hasn’t been able to detect the unidentified security flaw in the iPhone 5C architect which was exploited by the government to bypass the device’s security. This makes an unknown number of devices exposed to vulnerability creating the option for a wider debate between the company and the most influential government over the sensitive issue of privacy, security, and encryption.

The principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, Chris Soghoian expressed that the law enforcement agency is in a dilemma to strike the balance between the cybersecurity and its need of surveillance. He also criticized the FBI for asking Apple for assistance and he envisioned that the more the FBI grows silent about the inherent security flaw, the more they increase the susceptibility of the security flaw to be identified by a third party.

Even at the fastest pace, the disclosure of the security gap by the law enforcement agencies and the federal intelligence can take months, as per the former and current officials. Moreover, the White House has been contemplating whether the security fault should be kept secret from the affected company in order to strengthen its own surveillance or not.

According to the former and current government officials, things aren’t simple in the current case. Since Apple and other organizations openly opposed the government’s view of compelling a company to create weaknesses for its devices on the show of court order. It is more than likely that once the tech giant gets accustomed to the security flaw, it will work harder to bolster up its devices’ encryption.

Additionally, the government has to prudently decide whether to forward the hacking technique to the local law enforcement authorities who, at multiple times, reported their complaints of lack of accessibility they face into the criminals devices which limit the acquisition of potential evidence of criminal activities.

A former senior FBI official, Robert Anderson expressed that in the event where the agency would be able to unlock greater number of devices, it should disclose the method to Apple, as he believes that the government will certainly not put the millions of devices at risk while hiding the hacking technique.

He also added that the legal battle between Apple and FBI tend to ignore the fact that in today’s age technological advances have outperformed the government’s effort to be on the top. He went on to say that the method discovered by the FBI has very limited life span.

Similarly, ACLU’s Mr. Soghoian said that if the government opts for not disclosing the flaw to Apple for its investigative purposes then it will not turned out to be good. He further cited that by “stockpiling vulnerabilities, and not reporting them, the U.S. government risks angering firms that it regularly goes to seeking voluntary help. And the U.S. government needs Silicon Valley more than Silicon Valley needs the U.S. government.”