As part of the shooting in San Bernardino (California) in December 2015, the iPhone 5C of one of the attackers was recovered, but its content was inaccessible due to the presence of a code.
The FBI therefore asked for Apple's cooperation to unblock it, which became the starting point of a standoff with the Cupertino firm around theSan Bernardino iPhone, the latter claiming not to be able to access the data and refusing to provide a modified firmware breaking the protections of the mobile device.
The FBI finally got it done by using an unlocking method, possibly exploiting a flaw in iOS and bought on the gray market from companies selling vulnerabilities.
What technique and at what price? The government agency never made it clear, and several media groups tried to get a response through the courts.
However, a federal court has decided that the FBI was not not required to reveal details of its method of unlocking the iPhone 5C, nor the name of the supplier of the vulnerability or its price.
Federal judge explains decision saying that revealing the name of the loophole provider could lead to sophisticated government-level cyber attacks to find the loopholes against which he could not protect himself as well as he could do it the FBI.
Likewise, the price (estimated at around $ 1 million) remains secret so as not to provide quantified indications on the technique and its use to unlock other mobile devices.
