Lawsuit: Who did the FBI pay to get into the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone?

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A trio of major media entities—The Associated Press, USA Today, and Vice Media—sued the FBI in an attempt to force the agency to reveal details from a mysterious deal that the agency struck in order to bust into a seized iPhone used by a now-deceased terrorist. In April 2016, FBI Director James Comey suggested that his agency paid over $1.3 million to an unnamed company to unlock the iPhone 5C that was used by Syed Farook Rizwan, the man behind an attack in San Bernardino (CA) in December 2015.

The Department of Justice and Apple were set to square off in federal court in California in March 2016 before the hearing was called off. The government soon announced that it had been shown a new technique to unlock the phone and no longer needed Apple's help. The DOJ previously received a court order that would have compelled Apple to create an entirely new customized iOS to allow investigators to brute force the passcode on the device. Apple, for its part, forcefully argued that this was a significant government overreach.


Lawsuit: Who did the FBI pay to get into the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone?