The FBI will assist local law enforcement agencies seeking to access locked Apple devices, the agency announced in a newly released memo distributed to authorities around the country.
“As has been our long-standing policy, the FBI will of course consider any tool that might be helpful to our partners,” the agency said. “Please know that we will continue to do everything we can to help you consistent with our legal and policy constraints.”
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The memo was sent five days after the Justice Department announced that it was going to cease trying to force Apple to help unlock an iPhone used by the perpetrators of December’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif.
Noting that the issue brought “worldwide publicity and attention,” the FBI said it was committed to maintaining “an open dialogue” with local law enforcement, adding, “We are in this together.”
Shortly after the letter was sent, local authorities in Arkansas announced that the FBI had promised to help unlock devices used by suspects in a murder case there. The FBI subsequently sought to walk back that claim, saying it remains to be seen what the agency will be able to do.
The FBI has sought to maintain a veil of secrecy around the hacking mechanism that it developed in the San Bernardino case, but it is assumed to be software. It was used to break into an iPhone 5c that operated on an iOS 9 platform. That technology is behind Apple’s current standards, though the FBI’s hacking mechanism may work on newer models.
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Once the company discovers how the FBI’s hacking mechanism works, experts have said, it should not take Apple long to develop a method of countering it.
