FBI Allegedly Paid More Than $1 Million To Get Into Encrypted iPhone... And To Avoid Setting Legal Precedent It Didn't Like
from the just-saying dept
On Thursday, FBI Director James Comey suggested that the FBI paid over a million dollars to a group of hackers who helped it get into Syed Farook's encrypted work iPhone. Of course, just as pretty much everyone predicted, the FBI found nothing of value on the iPhone. This was hardly a surprise. It was a case where we already know who did it, and that they were already dead. We also know that they destroyed their two personal iPhones, leaving open the question why anyone would think there was anything valuable on the work iPhone.Specifically, Comey said that buying the exploit from this group cost the FBI "more than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure." Comey makes $185,100 per year at his job, implying that buying the exploit cost at least $1.3 million or so.
This has, understandably caused some to ask how it could possibly be worth it to pay so much money for an exploit that everyone must have known was worthless.
It would have been more responsible to give the FBI’s slush fund over to the victims’ families than to pursue such an obvious non-lead.
— Jonathan Zdziarski (@JZdziarski) April 21, 2016
Things that would've better served the American public with $1.3M than Comey's goose chase: Mental health funding.
— Jonathan Zdziarski (@JZdziarski) April 21, 2016
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Filed Under: doj, fbi, hack, iphone, james comey, precedent, syed farook
Companies: apple
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Would be nice to know if the FBI once again broke the law in getting what they wanted or if it was legal.
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http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/274619-israeli-firm-behind-iphone-hack-report
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http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/274619-israeli-firm-behind-iphone-hack-report
This was widely reported... and then debunked. Wasn't them.
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Small price...
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Wasn't cellebrite
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FBI vs. iPhone opens up a whole new angle of economic terrorism
2. Encrypt the phones. Store nothing of value of them, even in the encrypted areas. Prefer encryption that could be broken with enough effort, but not something broken easily.
3. Commit horrific crime, preferably for as little cost as possible.
4. Die during crime, or get caught and refuse to talk. Either way, leave vague suggestions that the mobile phones have valuable information on them. Alternately, leave suggestions that the mobile phones have nothing of value, which by reverse psychology means they are extremely valuable.
5. Let government waste huge amounts of time and money trying to break into a box that, if they manage to enter, has nothing of value.
Granted, it is not quite the magnitude of waste that 9/11 caused with the creation of TSA, but it is still a fairly significant multiplier.
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Re: FBI vs. iPhone opens up a whole new angle of economic terrorism
As long as the terrorists don't have data caps, all they do is just DOS the decryption department with swaths of garbage data to sort through.
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Re: FBI vs. iPhone opens up a whole new angle of economic terrorism
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Re: FBI vs. iPhone opens up a whole new angle of economic terrorism
2. Encrypt phone
3. Share password with comrades
4. Go all suicide bomber preserving phone
5. comrades approach FBI as 'hackers' who unlock the phone and receive $1.3mil in compensation.
6. Rinse, repeat on larger scale with newly acquired funding.
FTFY
On another note, my new startup needs investors, we are offering 20% stake for 1 life.
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Re: FBI vs. iPhone opens up a whole new angle of economic terrorism
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It's like...
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Yes, I agree it will diminish over time as people upgrade to newer phones. But if it's 2 phones, it 500k per phone, 10, 100k per phone, gaining access to a million phones, the cost is about $1 per phone.
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Or put another way...
When they didn't have a way in and were demanding Apple write custom code to disable the security on the device it was 'just one phone'.
When they have a way in(or claim to anyway) that doesn't require Apple's 'assistance' now it's all similar phones.
If people are slamming them for paying $1.3M to access a single phone that anyone could have told them wouldn't have anything valuable on it it's because their own arguments were based largely on how it was only ever about one phone, this one, which means if you give them the (undeserved) benefit of the doubt and assume they were telling the truth the entire amount was and is for just one phone, and it's just coincidental that it can also be used on other phones as well.
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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160222/17483233675/fbi-insists-not-trying-to-set-precedent -law-enforcement-is-drooling-over-exactly-that-possibility.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20 160223/07015733683/list-12-other-cases-where-doj-has-demanded-apple-help-it-hack-into-iphones.shtml
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Because its just a number not relating to anything for them. It's just a number. It's not their money and might as well be Monopoly money.
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More nonsense from TechDirt's piratey, criminal advocates.
Apple won't recover from this, mark my words.
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Re: More nonsense from TechDirt's piratey, criminal advocates.
But as with anything like this, Apple will take measures to prevent hacking and hackers, including nation-states, will take counter measures to get into the devices. It is a never ending game.
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Re: More nonsense from TechDirt's piratey, criminal advocates.
How much money was spent suing Apple in court arguing that the government had "exhausted every means available?"
Had they gone this route in the first place, that money wouldn't have been wasted in the first place.
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Re: More nonsense from TechDirt's piratey, criminal advocates.
It's her own fault. If she hadn't resisted, he wouldn't have had to use force to rape her.
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Yah, everything's good, until it gets exposed, huh?
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"Encryption is the devil." - Whatever (you could just leave this as a comment in all such articles and save us all some time)
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It's a bummer when the government you defended so vehemently lies, isn't it?
I prefer to call shit "shit" - and not polish it just to suggest impartiality. The government lied - and they should be called liars for it.
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Phrased differently
The FBI also admits it gives money to criminals as an effort to `keep up' with the times.
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Possible infringment
The exploit came from an organization that is much smarter than the FBI -- that organization probably could deal effectively with any infringement.
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Re: Possible infringment
That's really not saying much these days with the level of stupidity and incompetence they like to display on a regular basis.
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Correct first assumption...
Nevertheless, every company that the FBI / DOJ comes at from that point of asking for "the backdoor", to asking for something akin somewhere in the future, will know exactly how Law Enforcement will come at them, and what cards to play. It won't be quite so easy, and messy in the future.
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