FBI's "Outside Party" Revealed as Bureau Angles to Keep New Hack Secret

commondreams.org

The FBI wants to classify its new "alternate" method of unlocking the suspected San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, keeping it secret even from Apple itself, according to new reporting.

The Guardian confirmed with government officials on Wednesday that the technique does enable the FBI to get into Syed Farook's iPhone. That means the agency can back off from its legal battle with Apple, which has accrued widespread support from consumers and privacy advocates in its refusal to create decryption software.

The FBI made its announcement on Monday, a day before it was due in court to continue seeking an order to force Apple to unlock Farook's phone, which Apple has said would weaken its users' privacy rights.

However, "the government now has to be very cautious about when to use the method, which was provided by an 'outside party', according to court filings," the Guardian's Danny Yadron writes.

And according to additional reporting by Reuters on Wednesday, the "outside party" is an Israeli software company called Cellebrite, which creates, among other things, "a forensics system used by law enforcement, military and intelligence that retrieves data hidden inside mobile devices."

As The Verge notes, Cellebrite's involvement in the case is not a total surprise. The company has "a sole-source contract with the FBI that it signed in 2013 specifically to help with mobile forensics and data extraction, exactly the task presented by the San Bernardino case," writes Ashley Carman.