Israeli Tech Firm Helping FBI Hack Into San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone — Report
Community mourns at San Bernadino Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By Lior Zaltzman March 23, 2016
An Israeli tech company named “Cellebrite” is reportedly helping the FBI hack into the iPhone of San Bernadino mass killer Syed Rizwan Farook.
Apple has refused to help the feds unlock an iPhone 5c belonging to Farook, who killed 14 people. IPhone data gets wiped after multiple failed logins.
Apple contends that writing the program to help the government bypass the phone security code could jeopardize the security of their clients’ information and create a dangerous precedent for government overreach
Since a federal judge ordered Apple to bypass the measure, the global tech company and the FBI have been embroiled in a long and heated legal battle.
But this Monday, US officials announced that they had a third party that could possibly help them get into the iPhone of the shooter, claiming they were “cautiously optimistic” that this third party would be able to bypass the iPhone auto-locking measure without Apple’s aid.
The mystery of who is the “third party” may have been solved: Ynet and Reuters published reports that Cellebrite, an Israeli company based in Petah Tikvah, is the one helping the FBI.
“Cellebrite is a global company known for its breakthroughs in mobile data technology, delivering comprehensive solutions for mobile forensics and mobile lifecycle management,” according to the company’s website. Cellebrite already signed a sole provider contract with the FBI in 2013, to help the bureau with mobile forensic solutions.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Cellebrite has not yet confirmed this report.
The San Bernardino shooting took place December 2, 2015, 14 people were killed and 22 were seriously injured. The attack was carried out by Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
