14 DAY TRIAL // FBI has managed to break into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers without Apple’s help and now rumor has it that it doesn’t want to disclose the method used to unlock the device to Cupertino.
The reason is as simple as it could be: given Apple’s opposition to an iPhone backdoor, the FBI wants to avoid similar disputes in the future and tries to keep the hack secret to it can break into other devices too. If Apple finds out about the hack, it can easily patch it, and the FBI knows this very well.
And while the FBI refuses to give Apple more information on the way it unlocked the San Bernardino iPhone, the Cupertino-based firm expects the hack to leak very soon. And that will be the moment when all engineers will work around the clock to develop a patch and finally fix the security hole that would only expose more iPhones across the world.
The hack could go public
Reuters writes that several Apple security experts expect the FBI iPhone backdoor to go public anytime soon, mostly because the FBI is already planning to use it on some other devices too.
Furthermore, the company that developed the unlocking method and which provided it to the FBI (probably for a price) is very likely to sell it to other parties too, the experts believe, so once this happens, Apple can patch it without any help from the feds.
While this might seem a good strategy at the first glance, it only shows that for the moment, Apple itself has no idea how exactly the FBI managed to break into the San Bernardino iPhone. Which means that the FBI has a hack that can presumably unlock any iPhone out there and Apple can’t do anything about it.
Furthermore, if the FBI indeed uses the same hack to break into more iPhones or other third-parties pay for the software but they keep it away from any public channel and from Apple, it means that more devices would become vulnerable, again without the company being capable of doing anything to protect customers.
Certainly, FBI’s unlocking method causes headaches to Apple’s security engineers and it’s undoubtedly critical for the company to patch it as soon as possible.