US officials say they've cracked Pensacola shooter's iPhones, blast Apple

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/fbi-pensacola-terrorism-iphone-encryption/

By Sean Lyngaas
CYBERSCOOP
May 18, 2020

Federal law enforcement officials said Monday they had unlocked the iPhones of
the perpetrator of a December terrorist attack at a U.S. Naval base — and
sharply criticizing Apple for not granting them access to those encrypted
communications.

FBI technicians cracked the phones of a Saudi aviation student who killed three
U.S. sailors at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, uncovering evidence linking him
to an Al Qaeda affiliate, Attorney General William Barr said. Barr and FBI
Director Christopher Wray urged Silicon Valley companies to write software that
allows investigators to access encrypted communications with a warrant, a move
that technology firms and security experts have criticized for years.

Authorities took their usual claims a step further, though, by criticizing Apple
for what they described as effectively standing in the way of their
investigation.

“We received, effectively, no help from Apple,” Wray asserted at the press
conference. He did not detail the technique used by FBI officials to unlock the
phones, but said it was “not a fix for our broader Apple problem” of accessing
other suspects’ encrypted communications.

[...]

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