The FBI Have Started Briefing People About How They Broke Into The iPhone

After the recent court battle people, the FBI have been rather quiet regarding how they managed to get into an encrypted iPhone. That was until recently when the FBI started briefing senior officials about the methods they used, so it’s likely we won’t hear about it anytime soon.

The FBI have already given a briefing to senator Dianne Feinstein (Vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) about the technique they used to get into the iPhone 5C. Although no real details were given, it would seem that this may be the first of many with senator Richard Burr (the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee) was also offered a briefing, something that he has not accepted yet.

Feinstein and Burr are currently supporting a bill that would see companies required to help the government gain access to encrypted technologies that companies create. This new bill would see Apple and other companies compelled to help bypass or remove encryption on their hardware and software, something which the White House has yet to support.

With the new bill in sight, Feinstein and Burr also believe that companies like Apple shouldn’t be informed about the techniques the FBI used to gain access to their device, with Feinstein saying, “I don’t believe the government has any obligation to Apple. No com­pany or in­di­vidu­al is above the law, and I’m dis­mayed that any­one would re­fuse to help the gov­ern­ment in a ma­jor ter­ror­ism in­vest­ig­a­tion.”.

With encryption now one of many technological advances that governments and law enforcement now struggle with dealing with, it should be interesting to see how governments address this and if they choose to work with or against companies in dealing with the dangers this technology possesses if used in the wrong hands.