The FBI Did Not Need Apple-It Was a Raw Power Play They Lost
These guys are lucky not to be called out in Senate hearings. They should be.
NAND flash chips used by the iPhone 5c
I recently wrote about how it should be perfectly feasible for the FBI to circumvent the San Bernadino iPhone’s much-discussed auto-erase feature. And yesterday the FBI announced that they might have a way to get into the phone without compelling Apple to make any changes. While I have no reason to believe that my earlier blog post was their “third-party source” for this information, it seems likely that their approach will be something along the lines of what I described.
I’ve also been asked for a more detailed analysis of the attack I outlined. How long would it take? How much would it cost?
The bottom line is that for a functioning investigative agency with a team of experts and an active lab, it would probably take about 2 days. But even if they started from nothing, it would take the FBI (or anyone) no more than $50K and about a month to unlock this phone with the technique I proposed. Below are my rough estimates, with links and details explaining each step.
More: Is This the FBI’s ‘New’ Method for Unlocking the San Bernardino iPhone?