FBI cracks San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone and drops Apple case

The FBI has gained access to the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c and is therefore suspending the lawsuit against Apple. It is not clear how the US service managed to access the data on the smartphone.

The news comes out through documents filed with the court on Monday. The US Department of Justice allegedly asked the US court to drop the charges against Apple because it “no longer needs the company’s help”. Neither the US authorities nor Apple have commented at the time of writing.

Last week, a hearing was postponed to give the FBI time to test a new method of unlocking. Then the American Public Prosecution Service spoke of “a third party that has demonstrated to the FBI a possible method to unlock Farook’s iPhone”. This is probably the result of those tests. It is not known who the third party is, but it may be the Israeli Cellebrite. The method used may also not be disclosed.

The conflict between Apple and the FBI began in mid-February. The FBI demanded Apple’s help in decrypting the iPhone 5c belonging to one of the perpetrators. Evidence could be stored on the smartphone. Apple was asked to write special firmware for the phone to help bypass its security. Apple was resolutely against this because it would mean that the company creates a ‘master key’ that authorities could also apply in other cases.