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FBI iPhone 5c court hearing vacated by judge after request [u]
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MacNN Staff
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A few hours ago, the US Department of Justice filed to vacate tomorrow's hearing, as it has apparently found another method to access the San Bernardino shooter's work-owned iPhone 5c. The filing says that on Sunday, an "outside party demonstrated to the FBI a possible method for unlocking Farook's iPhone" which "should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple Inc. ("Apple") set forth in the All Writs Act Order in this case."
The three-page filing is short on details. It, however, is asking for tomorrow's hearing to be cancelled, claiming that "As the FBI continued to conduct its own research, and as a result of the worldwide publicity and attention on this case, others outside the U.S. government have continued to contact the U.S. government offering avenues of possible research." The government is planning to perform more testing on the iPhone 5c to determine suitability of the proposed procedure, and report back to the courts on April 5 with progress, which may yet result in Apple having to appear and defend its position.
Spokesperson for the Department of Justice Melanie Newman said in a statement on Monday that "an outside party demonstrated to the FBI this past weekend a possible method for unlocking the phone. We must first test this method to ensure that it doesn't destroy the data on the phone, but we remain cautiously optimistic. That is why we asked the court to give us some time to explore this option. If this solution works, it will allow us to search the phone and continue our investigation into the terrorist attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 people."
update: At approximately 6PM ET, Judge Pym agreed to vacate the hearing, and will enforce the April 5 update from the FBI.
305548166 DoJ Motion to Vacate Hearing
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Last edited by NewsPoster; Mar 22, 2016 at 07:53 AM.
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Forum Regular
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I saw some video a while back where John McAfee of the virus scanning fame and all around nutcase claimed he told the FBI that he could get the info off the iphone. I wonder if he did.
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Grizzled Veteran
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McAfee could ascend back into relevance and make a boatload of money if he could actually bypass the wiping of the phone due to a certain number of incorrect PIN guesses.
McAfee cannot do anything to that iPhone that anyone else couldn't already do. He doesn't have have some kind of secret/magic trick available to him. He's blowing smoke.
The FBI is going to learn this in short order when they let whomever they have in mind take a crack at the phone and the contents get wiped because of too many incorrect PIN guesses.
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There was too much solid opposition, with the public increasingly supporting Apple. The FBI knew it was going to lose - the precedent would support unbreakable encryption.
I think they seized on the most plausible available offer, and cancelled the hearing to avoid losing. Better luck next time.
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Senior User
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Yep, that's my read on it too. They've finally come to their senses and realized people have gotten a bit too informed to keep pushing the insanity. So, it's easier to back off and regroup. So, hopefully this means we've won this one.... for now. They'll be back though, I can guarantee that.
re: McAfee - I'm pretty sure he actually admitted that he made that up. He probably just thinks he could. It would be really easy to test though... just give the guy a locked 5c and let him have at it. Super-simple way to call his bluff.
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IIRC, no-one has ever said that they knew the auto-wipe feature was enabled on the phone -- only that there couldn't be sure that it isn't and therefore it's too risky to try. If there were a way to determine it was off without triggering it, that could be a door.
That said, the CIA/NSA/whoever may have "enlightened" the FBI+DOJ on the unintended consequences of their course of action.
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Mac Elite
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As we reported earlier, Richard Clarke and several other former agency heads -- notably the only guy to ever head both the NSA and CIA, General Michael Hayden -- said the FBI was full of crap on all this. I could be wrong, but I get the distinct impression the grownups just told the kids table to sit down and shut up.
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Charles Martin
MacNN Editor
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