By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Professional hackers helped the FBI unlock a San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone by exploiting a previously unknown software flaw.
The Washington Post reports that the FBI cracked the phone’s four-digit personal identification number by creating a piece of hardware that would prevent the security feature from erasing all of the data.
The FBI paid the hackers a one-time flat fee.
But the solution won’t help the FBI with every iPhone. The new information was only helpful opening an iPhone 5Cs running the iOS9 operating system.
The bureau is unsure whether it will reveal to Apple the procedure used to open the phone. If the information was shared with Apple, FBI Director James Comey said, “they’re going to fix it and then we’re back where we started from.”
