FBI confirms plan to keep San Bernardino iPhone hack a secret
- apr
- 27
As was rumored to be the case, the FBI has now confirmed that it will not share with Apple the method it used to break into the San Bernardino iPhone at the center of a recent legal tussle between the two parties.
In a statement to The New York Times, an FBI representative explained that the Bureau lacks sufficient technical information about the hack to be of use. Thus, the issue won't be passed on to the White House to decide whether the information should be shared with Apple.
"The F.B.I. purchased the method from an outside party so that we could unlock the San Bernardino device," Amy S. Hess, executive assistant director for science and technology, said in a statement.
"We did not, however, purchase the rights to technical details about how the method functions, or the nature and extent of any vulnerability upon which the method may rely in order to operate. As a result, currently we do not have enough technical information about any vulnerability that would permit any meaningful review" by the White House examiners, she said.
The statement puts a final nail in the coffin for the question of whether Apple would get any concrete information about particular vulnerabilities exploited by the hack. Whatever the case, however, the Bureau was ultimately forced to pay a pretty penny; FBI director James Comey recently hinted the hack cost upwards of $1.3 million dollars to secure.
