Posted on 04/14/2016 2:13:22 PM PDT by Swordmaker
The FBIs quest to unlock the San Bernardino shooters iPhone 5c and subsequent legal battle with Apple may have amounted to very little, as reports say nothing of real significance has been discovered on the now-unlocked device.
But the FBI is still analyzing the information, a law enforcement source told CBS News.
Related: Apple vs. the FBI: A complete timeline of the war over tech encryption
Apple refused a court order demanding it to create a backdoor into the iPhone, which would have allowed the FBI to access suspected terrorist Syed Farook personal information stored within. The Cupertino company said it would threaten the privacy and security of its customers, as the special code used to bypass the iPhones security could get into the wrong hands.
But the FBI dropped the case as it was able to access the phone after it paid professional gray hat hackers a flat fee to unlock the device. Apple still wants to know how the hackers got past its security, but the company wont sue the government to find out.
Apple was planning to find the technique through legal discovery in a New York drug related case, but it appears that the technique is under the legal ownership of the hackers the FBI paid, according to Reuters.
We reported earlier this month that the method could be revealed through the Vulnerabilities Equities Process a White House review group decides whether government-discovered security flaws should be disclosed to companies or the public. But Obama administration sources reportedly told Reuters that the process will likely not apply in the San Bernardino case, as it was a third-party group that discovered the flaw.
FBI Director James Comey said recently the bureau is still deciding if it should disclose the method.
We tell Apple, then theyre going to fix it, then were back where we started from, Comey said. We may end up there, we just havent decided yet.
In my opinion, this is the key point. Any useful after-the-fact information they might gain from the phone is insignificant compared to what they might have learned before-the-fact from publically available sources.
If I was the FBI /// “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it”
SCREW MSM TRAITORS
Deleting in itself wouldn’t necessarily get rid of the data. If he did use it to plan the attack, why didn’t he destroy it like they did the other phones?
".....plus the bath house kneeler gets us 150 billion dallor"
Apple never claimed cracking that model of phone running that OS with that feature enabled was impossible. They refused to.
Ditto those of us defending Apple. Didn’t say they couldn’t, but that they shouldn’t.
Such physical hacking was long suspected as possible, just difficult and likely only in the capabilities of talented and well equipped professionals.
We DID say other settings and later models may be unbreakable. Different discussion.
How can you manage to engage in this conversation this long without understanding this?
It was his work phone owned by the County of San Bernardino...would be kinda stupid to be doing terrorist business on your employers phone! Their other “burner” phones probably had all the “good stuff”.
That Apple phone belonged to the County of San Bernardino. The killers probably used other phones, which were later destroyed, to communicate with their terrorist associates.
Damn. Never thought of that..
What could they get from the phone that they couldn’t get from checking their provider, anyway?
Given enough time they’ll find proof that the Aryan Brotherhood, NRA and Tea Party gave the barbarians their instructions.
They wouldn’t say anything if they had discovered useful information on the phone. Why give instructions to the fellow terrorists?
There's no "probably" about it. The FBI has the shards of what is left of those destroyed phones, along with the remains of the hard drives removed from their laptop computers as well as their smashed laptops, that Farouk and Malik smashed with hammers before they went on their Jihad killing spree.
There is nothing probative they can get off of those shards. . . not even the phone numbers or carrier's name of the phones.
Famous
But
Incompetent
maybe the Obama administration gave orders to say this.
that would not be a shock
First FBI Agent: "OOPS!"
Second FBI Agent: "Uh, let's not tell the Agent in Charge that we tried eleven passcodes. What he doesn't know won't hurt US!"
Third FBI Agent: "Hey! I've got an idea! Let's get the San Bernardino IT guys to change the AppleID and see if that will let us get in!"
First two FBI Agents in unison: "GREAT IDEA!"
Third FBI Agent: "Let's go."
SB County IT Guy: "I don't think that's good idea."
Third FBI Agent: "We heard on the Internet this would do it. Go ahead. We're the FBI, you have to do it."
SB County IT Guy: "Why don't we call Apple and ask them what to do?"
First FBI Agent: "Look at this FBI wallet, that's all the authority you need to do what we tell you! DO IT!"
SB County IT Guy: "Well, OK, but I still think you should ask Apple. . . OK, done. " Third FBI Agent: "Try it. . . "
All three FBI Agents: "OOPS!"
Another tempestuous teapot?
Today, “phones” like those made by Apple are pocket computers where people store a whole lot more information than just “phone calls”. That info isn’t available by “checking their provider” any more than the contents of your house are discernible from municipal water supply records. Photos/videos of incriminating evidence, marked-up maps, notes, checklists, etc.
I think there are three basic reasons why that iPhone was not destroyed which I have outlined before:
One has to ask why Farouk and Malik did not destroy this iPhone 5C in their preparation for their attack. One answer is they knew there was nothing probative on it, and it was unnecessary to destroy it. Another is one I have proposed: the iPhone was not their property and Islamic Jihadists are required to ritually clean before doing their act of Jihad. That means they bathe, shave off body hair, pray, and must NOT commit any sins prior to killing their victims (not a sin), but THEFT is a sin.Destroying his employer's property would be such a sin, and therefore not something Farouk or Malik could do as it was not theirs to do with as they pleased. as that would constitute a theft, a sin, meaning they would not be morally clean before committing their act of Jihad. Frankly, even using the employer's phone for personal or Jihad use would be sinful. Ergo, nothing useful is on that iPhone.
Besides, it takes only five minutes to erase an iPhone back to a factory blank status, with all data gone.
So the reasons are:
Having a phone could be useful during such an attack. So...he kept his “clean”, employer-supplied, never-before-used-for-nefarious-purposes phone handy during the attacks.
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