It’s been more than two weeks since the FBI was able to gain access to the iPhone belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, and as per a new report, the FBI has still not found anything of “real significance” on the handset.
Surprised? Not everyone thinks so.
Investigators spent months trying to access the iPhone in question, thinking that it might contain information that would shed light on the plans of the attackers in the incident.
In the process it found itself engaged in what some campaigners called the FBI’s biggest PR disaster in history.
San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan — who was part of the investigation last December — previously acknowledged that, “I think that there is a reasonably good chance that there is nothing of any value on the phone.”
Similarly, the husband of a San Bernardino survivor — whose wife almost lost her life during the attack — noted that his spouse, “also had an iPhone issued by the County [which] she did not use it for any personal communication.”
While the FBI was eventually able to crack the iPhone 5c involved in the shooting (although not yet newer phones with better security), a new report suggests the Feds may not even legally be able to share exactly how this was achieved.
Was this a whole lot of wasted effort then? My guess is that it depends on whether or not the Justice Department is able to use this whole debacle to push through new anti-encryption laws.
Source: CBS
