FBI ‘Lacks Technical Details’ On How It Broke Into iPhone

Ever since the cold war between Apple and the FBI seemed to veer away from courtroom drama territory, updates have been coming like drips from a faucet. However, now that it’s public knowledge that the government paid a group of hackers to access the phone on its behalf, the FBI is suddenly mum on the issue.

Bloomberg reported that the FBI has officially denied a request to disclose the method by which the San Bernardino iPhone’s passcode screen was bypassed. However, rather than claiming an interest of public safety or the privacy required by an ongoing investigation, the FBI offered up a curious explanation for why it wouldn’t be releasing the details of the third-party hack to the Vulnerabilities Equities Process — a policy that mandates authorities must inform private companies of potentially critical security flaws that could affect them. Allegedly, they don’t know how they hacked it either.

“The FBI assesses that it cannot submit the method to the VEP,” Amy Hess, the FBI’s executive assistant director for science and technology, said in a statement. “We do not have enough technical information about any vulnerability that would permit any meaningful review.”

It’s yet another dead end for clues on how the FBI managed to access the phone, especially after the very public legal spat with a very popular consumer electronics company. In confirmation of the special nature of the scenario, which saw the FBI purchase an iPhone-specific hacking tool rather than its specifications, Hess also commented on the very fact that the FBI was commenting on a decision about going to the VEP at all – a usually confidential process regardless of the circumstances.

“We recognize, however, the extraordinary nature of this particular case, the intense public interest in it, and the fact that the FBI already has disclosed publicly the existence of the method,” Hess said. “Accordingly, we determined that it was appropriate to communicate with the interagency group, as well as the public about this important issue.”