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Risk & Repeat: New revelations in San Bernardino iPhone case
In this week's Risk & Repeat podcast, SearchSecurity editors discuss the OIG report's findings on the FBI's effort to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
The FBI's conduct in the San Bernardino iPhone case has come under scrutiny again following a report from the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General.
The OIG report revealed that even as FBI leadership was waging a legal battle with Apple to compel the technology giant to unlock Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone, the bureau's Remote Operations Unit (ROU) was working with an unnamed vendor that was "90% finished with a technical solution" that would unlock the device. Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik were responsible for the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino that left 16 people dead, including the attackers.
FBI leaders, including former director James Comey, testified under oath in the San Bernardino iPhone case that investigators couldn't unlock the device without assistance from Apple. The OIG report found that while ROU was close to unlocking the iPhone, other departments and FBI leadership were unaware of the ROU's progress. As a result, the OIG called out "inadequate communication and coordination" within the FBI and recommended several changes to address the issues.
How could the FBI have not known that its own technical division was so close to cracking Farook's iPhone? What does the OIG's report say about the FBI? Was the bureau seeking to create a legal precedent with its court battle against Apple? SearchSecurity editors Rob Wright and Peter Loshin discuss those questions and more on the San Bernardino iPhone case in this episode of the Risk & Repeat podcast.