You will not believe how the FBI cracked the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone

Seems like the “talk-of-the-town” is still about Apple and the FBI. According to a report by the  Washington Post, the FBI cracked the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought it to the bureau, according to people familiar with the matter. Reportedly,  they were paid a one-time flat fee for the solution too. The information shared was then reportedly used to create a piece of hardware that helped the bureau crack the iPhone’s four-digit personal identification number without triggering the security feature. The “researchers” who shared the information specialise in hunting for vulnerabilities in software. Just two weeks ago, the government dropped its effort to require Apple to crack an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December attacks in San Bernardino, California, saying it had unlocked the phone without Apple’s help. Some observers thought the government would back away from the New York case too, since the suspect has already pleaded guilty. But in a letter filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, the Justice Department said, “The government continues to require Apple’s assistance in accessing the data that it is authorized to search by warrant.” At issue in the Apple case was a county-owned iPhone used by Rizwan Farook, one of the husband-and-wife shooters in the December rampage in San Bernardino, California, in which 14 people were killed and 22 wounded. The couple died in a shootout with police after the attack. Tech industry leaders including Google, Facebook and Microsoft and more than two dozen other companies filed legal briefs supporting Apple. The Justice Department received support from law enforcement groups and six relatives of San Bernardino victims.