US Government Figures Out How To Crack iPhones; Ends Court Proceedings Against Apple

The US government has found a way to hack locked iPhones, making intervention by Apple unnecessary.

According to The Guardian, the Justice Department was set to confront Apple in court after the tech giant refused an order to unlock an iPhone belonging to San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook.

Apple’s stand might have led to a messy yet important legal stoush over privacy in the modern age… except, it turns out, the Justice Department found a way to crack the phone without Apple’s help, so the case has been dropped.

In a court filing Monday evening, Justice Department lawyers said the US government had “successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple Inc.”

They declined to describe how exactly they had breached the locked iPhone, only to say that assistance came from outside the government.

The Justice Department representative, on a call with reporters, declined to say whether or not they would share the technology with Apple, which would allow the company to create a patch that would keep the U.S. government from trying it again.

Back in February, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted the danger of such technology being introduced.

“In the wrong hands, this software… would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession,” he said.

“[W]hile the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control,” he continued.

The Guardian adds, however, that US public opinion in this particular instance sided with the government’s hacking efforts.

Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 15 people and injured 22 others during their shooting spree on December 2, 2015.

What are your thoughts?

Photo: iStock.