U.S. Drops California Case Against Apple After Accessing iPhone

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

March 28, 2016 — 5:50 PM EDT

The Department of Justice said Monday it no longer needed Apple's assistance to access the iPhone involved in the San Bernardino shooting case. Last week, the government asked to delay a court hearing while it tried a third-party method to access the iPhone.

Story developing...

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-28/u-s-drops-california-case-against-apple-after-accessing-iphone

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FBI Has Accessed San Bernardino Shooter’S Phone Without Apple’S Help

By Matt Zapotosky March 28 at 5:50 PM

The Justice Department is abandoning its bid to force Apple to help it unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack because investigators have found a way in without the tech giant’s assistance, prosecutors wrote in a court filing Monday.

The government said that investigators had now “accessed the data stored on” the shooter’s iPhone and no longer needed Apple’s help. They asked a court to vacate an earlier ruling forcing Apple to provide assistance.

The stunning move averts a courtroom showdown between Apple and federal prosecutors that many in the tech community had warned might set dangerous precedents.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-28/u-s-drops-california-case-against-apple-after-accessing-iphone

[msanthrope]

1. Who did it for them? nt

[Justice]

2. Israeli company Cellebrite

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/23/11290374/apple-iphone-fbi-encryption-crack-cellebrite
"Though Ynet didn’t go into detail about how Cellebrite is working around the iPhone’s built-in security measures, experts speculate the attack is based on a NAND mirroring technique, which involves essentially copying the flash memory of the device so it can be restored after a lockscreen wipe. US Representative Darrel Issa directly asked FBI Director James Comey about the possibility of using this technique during a House Judiciary hearing last month. The bureau is now well aware of its existence, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t work on the iPhone 5C in question. Notably, this method will run into problems on phones with a Secure Enclave, ruling out any phones beyond the 5S."

I think tomorrow's news will be - Apple agrees to acquire Cellebrite.

[msanthrope]

3. I don't think Mossad will sell. nt

[Helen Borg]

4. In short...

Your iPhone is not really secure.

[NutmegYankee]

5. Depends on the model.

Newer phones may not have this issue based on hardware changes.