The method used to hack an Apple iPhone is going to stay secret, FBI Director James Comey assured an audience on Wednesday. Although the agency might end up sharing it with Apple.
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“The FBI is very good at keeping secrets,” Comey said in a speech at Ohio’s Kenyon College. “The people we bought this from, I know a fair amount about them and I have a high degree of confidence that they are very good at protecting it and their motivations align with ours.”
Comey confirmed that the hack works only on a “narrow slice of phones,” suggesting that does not include the iPhone 5s or newer. The device used by terrorists in San Bernardino, Calif., was an iPhone 5c. The FBI had been seeking a way to prevent the device from destroying its contents after an incorrect password was entered more than 10 times, although the method used to disable the feature remains unknown.
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The company considered most likely to have developed the tool for the FBI is Israel-based Cellebrite. The forensics firm has worked with the FBI to hack Apple products in the past.
Comey said officials are debating whether to share what they had discovered with Apple so the company could be aware of what enabled the vulnerability. “That’s an interesting conversation, because [if] we tell Apple they’re going to fix it and then we’re back where we started from,” he said. “As silly as that may sound we may end up there, we just haven’t decided yet.”
