http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/23/fbi-to-apple-well-crack-the-terrorists-iphone-without-you/
The case until now has rested on whether the FBI and DoJ could force Apple to write software to defeat its own systems, even for a one-off event. Apple argued at the time that it wasn’t just a one-off kind of request, and that writing the software would damage its brand. That would still be true if the FBI gets Cellebrite to do it, but at least it doesn’t have the same legal baggage of forced production. That still seems unlikely to “end the high-stakes legal showdown.”
In fact, it might have the opposite effect. If the government can decrypt iPhones without Apple’s cooperation, that might let Apple off the hook with its consumers in the short run. However, it might also undermine Apple’s business case that its systems are hacker resistant, even if its management remains undaunted. It also puts the government in position of essentially funding and endorsing commercial hackers to Apple’s detriment. If anyone thinks Apple will let that slip by their lawyers, think again. That will also create an impulse to further harden the encryption, and we’ll eventually be back around to the same issue.
Apple might have a more difficult time with its “principled stance” because of Brussels than Cellebrite. Bloomberg’s tech panel discusses the FBI’s strategy, and the way in which terror attacks might erode Apple’s insistence that its own security transcends that of the US, and USA Today follows up as well:
My understanding is that this may work because the 5c doesn’t have the Secure Enclave feature that Apple puts in later phones. The newer models likely wouldn’t be crackable in this manner.