WASHINGTON - The government is not likely to notify Apple Inc., of the method used to hack into iPhone used by San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, a federal law enforcement official said Monday.
Thanks to the skills of an unknown third party, the Department of Justice was able to access data on the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.Video provided by Newsy Newslook
The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the FBI concluded that authorities had not positively identified a software vulnerability to trigger a formal government review. If the FBI had found such a vulnerability, the FBI would have notified the tech giant as to how federal agents gained access to the device.
The FBI paid an outside party more than $1.3 million to break into Farook's iPhone. The method used by the outside party does not reveal enough information about the iPhone's potential weakness to prompt authorities to contact Apple officials, the official said.
Apple had previously mounted a legal challenge to the government's efforts to force the company's assistance in bypassing the security function on Farook's phone, recovered shortly after the December mass shooting that left 14 people dead.
The government withdrew its demand earlier this month after it secured the help of the yet-unidentified outside party to access the device.
The official said the FBI would be making its recommendation to the White House not to proceed with the review, a process established to assist the private sector in identifying potential software vulnerabilities.
Earlier Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey told a cyber security conference at Georgetown University that the government was "really close'' to making its determination about how to proceed with its knowledge about the San Bernardino phone.
"We are in the midst of trying to sort that out,'' Comey told the group. "Are we aware of a vulnerability or did we just buy a tool and don't have sufficient knowledge of the vulnerability to implicate the (review) process.''
