Israeli Firm Cellebrite Reportedly Working With FBI to Unlock San Bernardino iPhone

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Israeli company Cellebrite has reportedly been appointed by the FBI to find an alternative way to unlock the iPhone 5c involved in the San Bernardino shootings, and If successful, the FBI will be able to drop requests for help from Apple, who persists in refusing.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal court to postpone the hearing intended to review the order asking Apple to build a passcode limit removal for the FBI. A filing indicated only that “an outside party” had shown the FBI a possible means of unlocking The terrorist’s phone, and that if successfully tested, Apple will not need be asked at all. If successful, the case will be dropped entirely.

Should Cellebrite’s option not work, courts may once again have to test the FBI’s interpretation of the All Writs Act, which authorizes the United States federal courts to “issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.”

Either decision made by the court is likely to set a major precedent, either limiting or unleashing the amount of help U.S. law enforcement can recruit when trying to bypass encryption.

Apple has argued that the first precedent could be dangerous both domestically and internationally, and that compelling the creation of new software is tantamount to compelling speech. It has also suggested that the order would undermine iOS security, exposing it not just to law enforcement and spy agencies but to hackers and criminals.

“We built the iPhone for you, our customers, and we know that it’s a deeply personal device,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “We need to decide, as a nation, how much power the government should have over our data and our privacy.”