FBI approached little-known Australian firm to hack into San Bernardino shooter's iPhone

An Australian cybersecurity firm helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to hack into the iPhone of the San Bernardino, California shooter as the US government and Tim Cook were at difference about Apple designing ‘specialized software’ that would help the FBI evade iPhone’s passcode. Apple CEO, then top attorney with the firm, and several US lieutenants had gathered inside the junior boardroom on the executive floor of Apple’s then headquarters One Infinite Loop. FBI ordered Apple, citing a writ from a US magistrate, to design a version of iOS that would allow investigators to unlock the iPhone used by the 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook, the accused in the December 2015 San Bernardino shooting that left 14 dead, several others wounded. 

Syed’s iPhone was locked with a four-digit passcode that the FBI was unable to crack, according to multiple reports. But Apple’s attorney had refused for Apple Inc. to create an ‘unlocked version of iOS’ saying that it would be ‘very, very dangerous' and if leaked, will compromise the security of hundreds of thousands of iPhones worldwide. Cook said that the specialized version of iOS that could help the FBI use unlimited password combination electronically until the accurate one was found if stolen, could never be retrieved. Officers were unable to shake Apple’s legal position, that said, the US government’s writ “was not a simple request for assistance in a criminal case.” 

[Armoured vehicles surround an SUV following a shootout in San Bernardino, Calif. Credit: AP]

Operation kept 'secret'

Amid the Apple-FBI standoff, a low-key Australian security firm Azimuth Security helped the FBI gain access to the seized iPhone of assaulter Syed that the officers recovered from the terror scene. A report carried by The Washington Post stated that the long unidentified third party Azimuth kept the operation as ‘secret’, as within a matter of hours it was able to help the Bureau of Investigation to link several exploits and use a Mozilla Open Source Code snag to hack into the iPhone security. 

The  "publicity-shy" firm, owned by United States’ L3Harris Technologies, had remained in the shadows amid speculations in 2016 that the FBI had hired Cellebrite to unlock the shooter's iPhone 5C. The company is known to have designed hacking tools for the US, Canadian, and UK governments. FBI’s unlocking iPhone with replica iOS side-loaded onto the iPhone also sparked a legal battle between FBI and Apple. US Justice Department and Apple held a legal proceeding in a court in March 2016, which was later settled by the Department. FBI reportedly paid a little under US$1 million to hack the iPhone.