14 DAY TRIAL // The Tuesday hearing involving the FBI and Apple in the dispute over the hacking of an iPhone used by San Bernardino attacks got delayed because the feds got in contact with a “third-party” that could help unlock the device without any help from the Cupertino-based company.
No specifics have been provided on the name of the company or the method it plans to use to break into the device, but the FBI said that it’s going to work together with Apple to make sure that no data stored on the phone is compromised.
Now a report coming from Israeli site YNetNews reveals that the company in question is Cellebrite, a mobile forensics firm that’s believed to be looking into several ways to break into the device, one of which would involve only small risks of losing data.
Details are missing for the time being and none of the involved parties wanted to confirm or deny the report, but several security experts have already commented on the methods that could be used during the process.
McAfee: Apple won’t like this method
One such example is none other than John McAfee (who by the way still owes us an eaten shoe), who said in a recent interview at CNBC’s Power Lunch that Apple will most likely disagree with the method that the Israeli company plans to use for the hacking of the iPhone.
“I promise you that [Apple CEO] Tim Cook and Apple are not going to be happy with the solution that the FBI has come up with. Because it is almost as bad as a universal master key,” he said, suggesting that Cellebrite could turn to a hacking method that could then be used to hack every iPhone.
One of Apple’s concerns in this case was that developing software to unlock the iPhone could lead to exposing other devices in the country, so it remains to be seen how the company is going to react to this new FBI approach.