FBI paid at least $1 million to hack into terrorist's iPhone, director says

FBI paid at least $1 million to hack into terrorist's iPhone, director says

The FBI paid added than $1 actor to an anonymous third affair to advice agents alleviate the iPhone of a agitator complex in endure year's San Bernardino, Calif., attacks, the bureau's director, James B. Comey, said Thursday.

Speaking at a aegis appointment in London, Comey elliptically referred to the amount of breaking into the iPhone as getting added than the absolute he will acquire in the actual seven years of his 10-year appellation as the bureau's director. Comey earns $183,000 a year.

"We paid a lot," Comey said. "But it was account it."

The FBI has not appear the character of the affair who helped it able into the device. A law administration official has said that board begin annihilation of acceptation on the buzz acclimated by Syed Rizwan Farook, who died in a gun action with badge on Dec. 2 afterwards he and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, dead 14 humans and blood-soaked 22 others.

In February, the Justice Department acquired a cloister adjustment acute Apple to advice board bypass the device's aegis appearance in a way that wouldn't automatically abolish its contents. Apple banned and the after cloister action generated a acrimonious altercation that alveolate the Justice Department and added law administration admiral adjoin aloofness advocates and above technology companies who abhorrence creating "backdoors" into their products.

The FBI endure ages abruptly alone the case if it was approached by an anonymous third affair that had begin a way to avoid the phone's aegis features. Comey and added top Justice Department admiral accustomed publicity surrounding the cloister affray with dispatch alfresco groups to try to drudge into the phone.

Comey told an admirers at a aegis appointment hosted by the Aspen Institute on Thursday that relying on a agnate action to breach into added encrypted accessories was not a applicable abiding solution.

About JULIA

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.