Today, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation spent less than $1 million on an exploit used to access an iPhone which was caused by Farook Syed in last year's San Bernandino case.
Reuters reported that there was a "one-time payment" which included a zero-day vulnerability which was capable of bypassing the iPhone 5C's passcode lockscreen which was running iOS 9. The iPhones 5c was used by the terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook.
Many reports have put estimated costs to the exploit used to more than $1.3 million which was based on a quote from FBI Director James Comey. Officials have not identified the contractor, and media reports read like speculation. Depending on the source, the party is either established security firm Cellebrite or a clandestine cadre of gray-hat hackers. Reuters stated that Comey doesn't know who his agency contracted for the job.
The FBI will most likely keep their third party's identity a secret and will not submit the vulnerability for review under the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, which is a system that is designed to discover digital vulnerabilities. The agency claims it cannot provide technical details on the matter because legal rights to those techniques are still owned by the contractor.
Apple has stated that it has no intention of filing suit against the government to force the hack's disclosure as the exploit likely has a short shelf life.
What do you think of the FBI paying under $1 million to unlock a terror suspects iPhone 5c?
[via Reuters]
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