Hundreds of requests to unlock phones flood FBI

At the same time the FBI was struggling to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino (CA) terrorist Syed Farook, the agency was being inundated with requests from state and local law enforcement seeking help accessing the contents of hundreds of encrypted or damaged cellphones linked to unrelated criminal investigations scattered across the country. Requests involving more than 500 such devices streamed into the bureau’s Computer Analysis Response Team and the agency’s Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory programs during a four-month period beginning last October, two months before agents seized Farook’s device in the aftermath of the mass shooting that left 14 dead, according to the FBI. The numbers, the most recent accounting provided by the agency, offer an assessment —albeit limited — of the mounting investigatory challenges posed by encryption and other technological hurdles beyond the San Bernardino case that launched the government’s recently aborted court battle with Apple.