FBI won’t reveal how a locked iPhone used by the San Bernardino attackers was accessed

San Bernardino shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.

THE FBI says it will not publicly disclose the method that allowed it to access a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, saying it lacks enough “technical information” about the software vulnerability that was exploited.
The decision resolves one of the thorniest questions that had confronted the federal government since it revealed last month that an unidentified third party had come forward with a successful method for opening the phone.
The FBI did not say how it had obtained access, leaving manufacturer Apple Inc. in the dark about how it was done.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Executive Assistant Director for Science and Technology Amy Hess. Picture: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

The new announcement means details of how the outside entity and the FBI managed to bypass the digital locks on the phone without help from Apple will remain secret, frustrating public efforts to understand the vulnerability that was detected and potentially complicating efforts to fix it.
In a statement on Wednesday, FBI official Amy Hess said that although the FBI had purchased the method to access the phone — FBI Director James Comey suggested last week it had paid more than US$1 million (AU$1.3 million) — the agency did not “purchase the rights to technical details about how the method functions, or the nature and extent of any vulnerability upon which the method may rely in order to operate.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook refused a court order to unlock the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists. Picture: AP /Marcio Jose Sanchez

The government has for years recommended that security researchers work cooperatively and confidentially with software manufacturers before revealing that a product might be susceptible to hackers.