Cellebrite again rumored to have accessed San Bernardino iPhone 5c for FBI
Citing inside sources, reports this week claim Israeli data forensics firm Cellebrite provided the FBI with technology to extract information from an iPhone 5c linked to San Bernardino terror suspect Syed Rizwan Farook.
According to a Thursday report from Bloomberg, people familiar with the FBI's data gathering operation said the agency worked with Cellebrite Mobile Synchronization Ltd., a division of Japan's Sun Corporation, to gain access to Farook's iPhone. On Friday, CNN Money cited its own inside sources as saying a "brilliant" hacker in Seattle managed a group of "elite" Cellebrite engineers to accomplish the exploit.
Both reports seemingly corroborate claims made last week by Israeli publication Yedioth Ahronoth, though the exact method by which FBI agents gained entry to the iPhone unit remains secret. Neither Cellebrite nor the Justice Department have confirmed the rumors.
Confusing the matter, however, are statements from two unnamed law enforcement officials, who on Friday told CNN Cellebrite was not involved. Despite these new claims, circumstantial evidence suggests the firm was indeed contracted to bypass Apple's security measures.
Government records indicate Cellebrite signed a $218,000 FBI contract the same day Justice Department representatives announced Farook's device had been cracked. A longtime Cellebrite customer, the FBI previously inked at least 187 deals over the last seven years for forensics tools averaging $10,883 each, but last week's agreement was the largest to date, CNN reports.
Riding a wave of publicity drummed up by the DOJ's announcement on March 21, and the initialYedioth Ahronoth report last week, Sun Corp. shares jumped more than 40 percent to hit a 2016 peak of 1,245 yen on Wednesday.
As for Apple, the company's attempts to gather information about the FBI's data extraction technique have been fruitless. Whether Apple has standing to force the issue in court is unclear, but security experts say leaving the vulnerability unpatched puts hundreds of millions of iPhones at risk.
According to a Thursday report from Bloomberg, people familiar with the FBI's data gathering operation said the agency worked with Cellebrite Mobile Synchronization Ltd., a division of Japan's Sun Corporation, to gain access to Farook's iPhone. On Friday, CNN Money cited its own inside sources as saying a "brilliant" hacker in Seattle managed a group of "elite" Cellebrite engineers to accomplish the exploit.
Both reports seemingly corroborate claims made last week by Israeli publication Yedioth Ahronoth, though the exact method by which FBI agents gained entry to the iPhone unit remains secret. Neither Cellebrite nor the Justice Department have confirmed the rumors.
Confusing the matter, however, are statements from two unnamed law enforcement officials, who on Friday told CNN Cellebrite was not involved. Despite these new claims, circumstantial evidence suggests the firm was indeed contracted to bypass Apple's security measures.
Government records indicate Cellebrite signed a $218,000 FBI contract the same day Justice Department representatives announced Farook's device had been cracked. A longtime Cellebrite customer, the FBI previously inked at least 187 deals over the last seven years for forensics tools averaging $10,883 each, but last week's agreement was the largest to date, CNN reports.
Riding a wave of publicity drummed up by the DOJ's announcement on March 21, and the initialYedioth Ahronoth report last week, Sun Corp. shares jumped more than 40 percent to hit a 2016 peak of 1,245 yen on Wednesday.
As for Apple, the company's attempts to gather information about the FBI's data extraction technique have been fruitless. Whether Apple has standing to force the issue in court is unclear, but security experts say leaving the vulnerability unpatched puts hundreds of millions of iPhones at risk.
Comments
That at is assuming that they actually did unlock the phone of course.
it was a wildly misconceived under planned and poorly executed effort that among its high points included Director Comey perjuring himself before Congress twice without penalty and the Attorney General getting a snack down by of all people - Lindsey Graham who apparently does attempt to educate himself on the matters his votes will be counted. His about face made it clear this wasn't happening and the story simply needed to die.
Apple is aware of Celebryte, NAND mirroring and every single possible other method one currently has or might have to subvert their encryption.
it started with a lie and do it ends the same way.
dont care how many people die, how many children are molested or if their diddlers get caught and terroism will never be some kind of super threat afforded expediency and constitutional compromise to get a bad guy if it means somehow they can look in more than just that one phone.
Its the the future folks but you can't look in my phone
These guys are BRILLIANT!!
$218,000?
I guess the data wasn't worth as much as they made some dumb Americans believe. Maybe that $218,000 will end terrorism?
So, they need a precedent to force companies to make their software less secure; thus the court case.
This was more for future access (which is fading fast) than for current access.
Is it ethical to not only withhold details about a security weakness from the manufacturer, but to also profit from it?
"A Tomahawk cruise missile costs about $1.5m, and even the Hellfire, an air-to-ground rocket that weighs a mere 50kg, is $115,000 a pop. In exchange for, say, an enemy tank, that is probably a fair price to pay. To knock out a pick-up truck crewed by a few lightly armed guerrillas, however, it seems a little expensive, and using its shoulder-fired cousin the Javelin ($147,000) to kill individual soldiers in foxholes, as is often the case in Afghanistan, is positively profligate."