FBI’s Bill To Crack The iPhone? $1.3M

FBI Director James Comey confirmed on Thursday (April 21) that the agency spent more than his salary over the next seven years and four months in order to gain access into the encrypted iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, Reuters reported.

Without accounting for any raises or bonuses, Comey is set to earn approximately $1.34 million over the remainder of his job. Figures from both the FBI and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget confirm his annual salary of $183,300 as of Jan. 2015.

In response to a recent question about how much was spent to purchase the software that eventually provided the FBI with access to the iPhone, Comey said: “A lot. More than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure.”

“But it was, in my view, worth it,” he added.

Comey confirmed that the software can also be utilized on other 5c iPhones running iOS 9 software.

The FBI successfully unlocked the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in a terrorist attack last year, after a longstanding battle between Apple and the Department of Justice.

Weeks ago, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the researchers hired by the federal agency discovered a previously unknown software flaw that allowed them to create a piece of hardware to crack the iPhone’s four-digit passcode.