FBI Paid Professional Hackers One-Time Fee To Crack San Bernardino iPhone

There's another new wrinkle in the never-ending FBI vs Apple saga. The Washington Post is claiming that FBI did not require Cellebrite's assistance in hacking San Bernardino iPhone. Instead, the report claims, the government intelligence organization bought a previously unknown security bug from a group of professional hackers. According to the report, the hacker group provided FBI with at least one zero-day flaw in the iPhone 5c's security, which enabled FBI to circumvent the lockscreen and other security features. The bug hasn't been disclosed. FBI has previously noted that the technique it utilized in breaking into the iPhone 5c does not work with any new iPhone models.

Link

Sounds right. We have money, not handcuffs, for you this time.

I wonder how much help is bought in order to keep big brother in the game of spying on citizens.

I bet the government is one of the biggest buyers of zero day exploits.

a reply to: roadgravel

Strange relationship between the FBI and hackers; if you're good and they feel you can do a job for them, they'll try and recruit you, if you refuse they'll probably create a bunch of charges and jail you haha. Or in this case, if you're good and have a tool they need at a specific time, they'll pay big bucks for it and leave you free to hack some more.

WEird

a reply to: Zcustosmorum

Isn't that the way our government operates. No law matters if it stand in it's way.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
a reply to: roadgravel
Strange relationship between the FBI and hackers; if you're good and they feel you can do a job for them, they'll try and recruit you, if you refuse they'll probably create a bunch of charges and jail you haha.

Odd fact ... FBI now allow people with pot in their system or on their criminal record to join in digital forensic and hacking spaces because they found they couldn't hire anyone otherwise.

World needs hackers more than hackers need the world.

This is nothing new.

Law enforcement has always looked to criminals for help in certain cases/situations.

If you wanted to learn how to pick a lock effectively or the best way to pick a pocket, wouldn't it be wise to learn from the best?

Oh he FBI is that stupid?

a reply to: roadgravel

Isn't that...I don't know...illegal?

Justification: Breaking the law for a higher purpose. smh.

Submitted for your approval, a brief conspiracy theory:

FBI: Hey, we got this phone, here, but it's encrypted. Can you guys tell us what's on it?

NSA: Sure, hang on. Here you go.

FBI: Thanks! Got a lot of swell info here. This should get the judge to sign a few warrants.

NSA: Uh, just keep us out of it. We don't want any potential legal hassles, and we don't want people to know we have built in back doors to this stuff.

FBI: Gotcha. We'll see if we can get Apple to take credit on this one.

- Later -

FBI: Apple is being jerks. They are afraid they might take a hit on sales vs. android products if they cooperate.

NSA: Well, go the "anonymous source" route. Say you hired some unknown hackers to crack the encryption. You can also say that this only works on older phones. That should make Apple happy.

FBI: Sounds like a plan ...

[cue Twilight Zone music]

originally posted by: introvert
This is nothing new.

Law enforcement has always looked to criminals for help in certain cases/situations.

If you wanted to learn how to pick a lock effectively or the best way to pick a pocket, wouldn't it be wise to learn from the best?

You're not the best, if you're getting caught.

Cheers

It's more like they admitted to paying one of their under-the-table, "officially don't employ" hackers.

Anyone watched House of Cards? Remember how that FBI agent blackmailed that one hacker into doing his bidding? Threatening him with charges unless he cooperated and did the agent's dirty work?

I have no doubt things like that are NOT far off.

Plausible deniability if something goes wrong and he's discovered. You just cut ties, arrest the hacker and say he was breaking the law. He never worked for you, in fact he was being investigated by you.

Dudes...and I told you guys that there are ways to hack into the phone.

One way? Just remove the flash memory that stores the key. Make a backup of it. Try passwords until it self-destructs, then restore the flash memory from backup, just copy it back over.

Then? You can try to brute force it again. And again. And again. Just keep restoring/copying the original encrypted key back onto the flash chip.

Seriously, it's not impossible -- and totally within the budget and means of the FBI to do this.

IN FACT the ACLU even suggested that if the FBI was to lazy to have it's own bench techs do it, they could hire a myriad of other private contractors in the mobile security world.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
a reply to: roadgravel

Strange relationship between the FBI and hackers; if you're good and they feel you can do a job for them, they'll try and recruit you, if you refuse they'll probably create a bunch of charges and jail you haha. Or in this case, if you're good and have a tool they need at a specific time, they'll pay big bucks for it and leave you free to hack some more.

WEird

That's how law enforcement has always worked, especially at the higher levels. Just look into the connections between organized crime families and law enforcement, from the Camorra in Italy to the Yakuza in Japan. Even in WW2, the US govt worked with Jewish and Italian crime families in "Operation Underworld".

People need to realize that law enforcement's most important function at the national level is to maintain "peace". Waging an all out war against crime families, cartels, and professional international hacking rings would certainly cause more damage than they're willing to accept. It's much easier to wage a diversionary "tough on crime" initiative against scapegoats who can't or won't fight back; such as poor people, poor farm working immigrants, "social undesirables", and bogeymen on the other side of the world.

Just look at what happened when Mexico actually started fighting the cartels. More than 164,000 dead from 2007 to 2014 and the cartels are still just as strong (3rd paragraph in this link).

I do not for a second believe that the US government does not have the capability to hack an Iphone.

a reply to: Painterz

They probably did, with or without outside assistance. The Apple event was playing a hand in hopes of getting software companies to feel they should cooperate. With that hand lost, they used the issue to get the average person's emotions on their side. It's all working toward no secure encryption from the government perspective.

The backdoor issue is a long way from over.

I hope they got a good deal...the hackers that is!

Ohw and let me guess, when they want to cut their hair they pay a hairdresser for that?

Meh...

That´s the same # like our government buying info on tax evading people with swiss bank accounts.
Data that was stolen, bought by our government to prosecute the people who "stole" from the government.

Bogus. They keep pushing this Iphone malarkey. It is all a show. Your Iphone aint secure against # especially to the gov.

What a joke how hard they are pushing this crap.

a reply to: roadgravel

I see "Fruit of a poisoned tree" issues in their future.

a reply to: Pinke

Its just the age old battle between "good" vs "evil". Everyone has their own agenda and it usually gets put into either of those categories. The world doesn't need more hackers, it needs less people, like a lot less.. maybe 0 even.