FBI paid over $1 million to hack iPhone

(Baonghean.vn) - FBI Director James Comey said on April 21 (local time) that the FBI paid more than 1 million USD to a company to hack the iPhone of terrorist Syed Farook.

FBI Director James Comey revealed information about the cost the FBI paid to hack the iPhone at the Security Conference held on April 21 in London. Photo: Cnet

Speaking at a security conference in London, FBI Director James Comey was asked to reveal how much it would cost the FBI to unlock an iPhone. "A lot, more than my total salary for the rest of my time in this job, which is 7 years and 4 months. But in my opinion, it was worth it," Comey said.

The case began when the FBI asked Apple to grant access to the iPhone of the San Bernardino terrorist, then attracted public attention about technology companies refusing requests from investigative agencies.

In early April 2016, Mr. Comey revealed that the FBI had purchased “a tool” from a private company but would not continue to develop the services provided.

Mr. Comey also said that the FBI does not intend to continue hiring outside companies if it encounters similar cases due to cost reasons, but will be "part of the work of FBI employees" in the near future.

Mr. Comey shared that the FBI will try to find a reasonable technological solution that does not involve cracking or spending large sums of money each time the organization encounters a new encryption challenge.

The iPhone that the FBI has just successfully unlocked belongs to terrorist Syed Farook. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, belong to the extremist Islamic group supporting the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), carried out the terrorist attack in December 2015 in San Bernardino, killing 14 people. Both killers later died in a shootout with US police.

Thanh Hien

(According to CNN)