News

Israeli Company Helps FBI Hack San Bernardino Terrorist’s iPhone

Israeli firm cracks iPhone FBI terror probe. Image by Getty

By Lior Zaltzman March 30, 2016

The FBI announced this Tuesday that it has hacked into the phone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the mass murderer responsible the San Bernardino shooting spree that took the lives of 14 people.

This ends the Feds’s long and winding legal battle with Apple, who refused to help find a way to bypass the iPhone’s security measures, saying that it would threaten the security of thousands of ordinary iPhone users.

However, just last week, it was reported that a third party, Israeli company Cellebrite, approached the FBI with an offer to bypass the security measure, without any assistance from Apple. The FBI has since halted all legal proceedings against the company.

Cellebrite has declined to confirm or comment on this information. But according to Hackaday, the FBI paid Cellebrite $218,004.85 on March 28. Cellebrite is a subsidiary of Japan’s Sun Corporations, whose stocks have risen 40% since March 21, according to Bloomberg news.

White House spokesperson, Josh Earnest told reporters this Wednesday that American people should “absolutely” still have confidence in their personal privacy after this affair.

“The reason they should be confident in that privacy is because there are laws on the books that are assiduously followed … that protect the privacy of the American people,” he told reporters. He added that privacy will be ensured “even as we undertake the necessary actions to protect our national security.”

While this marks the end of this battle between the Feds and Apple, for some, questions about what this means for information security remain unanswered.

Lior Zaltzman was the Forward’s Digital Fellow. Follow her on twitter @liorca.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO