Short Bytes: In a clever manner, Apple has invited the FBI to hack another iPhone to know how the law enforcement agency managed to crack the San Bernardino iPhone. The iPhone maker has asked the court to call FBI and ask it to unlock the New York case iPhone as the agency has already developed a method.
However, the FBI vs FBI tussle doesn’t seem to end here. Apple now wants to know how FBI was able to crack the iPhone and it’s using another case to seek the information.
Apple lawyer Marc Zwillinger, in a letter to a U.S. court judge, has invited the FBI to hack another iPhone from another case using the same method it used in the San Bernardino case. Previously, Apple has already refused to unlock this iPhone that belonged to a methamphetamine dealer.
“If that same method can be used to unlock the iPhone in this [New York] case, it would eliminate the need for Apple’s assistance,” Zwillinger told Judge Margo Brodie.
As a reply to this request, the FBI has said that San Bernardino method won’t work with the New York iPhone.
As a counter-argument to this reply, Apple wants to test this claim. “If the [Justice Department] claims that the method will not work on the iPhone here, Apple will seek to test that claim, as well as any claims by the government that other methods cannot be used,” Zwillinger said.
According to legal experts, Apple is using a clever way to find out the method used by the FBI to unlock the disputed iPhone. Apple argues that if the government has already developed a method to hack the phone, it doesn’t really need their help.
It’ll be interesting to see if Apple becomes successful in gaining access to the method used by the FBI. Apple says that if the FBI found a vulnerability in the phone’s operating system and it’s unknown to Apple, it could potentially be used on many other phones remotely.
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