The federal government claimed at least 19 times that it had no way to hack into an Apple iPhone without assistance from the company, according to the latest count by experts familiar with the situation. That could become a problem for law enforcement officials, who acknowledged on Monday that the claim may not have been true.
The Justice Department first made the claim more than a month ago. In a Feb. 16 court filing, DoJ attorneys wrote, “Apple’s assistance is necessary to effectuate the warrant” to search a dead terrorist’s iPhone. They also said Christopher Pluhar, a forensics expert at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, could attest to their claim.
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“I have explored other means of obtaining this information with employees of Apple and with technical experts at the FBI, and we have been unable to identify any other methods feasible for gaining access to the currently inaccessible data stored within the subject device,” Pluhar was quoted as claiming in the filing.
The agencies repeated the claim in filings on Feb. 19 and March 10. FBI Director James Comey denied having the ability several times in testimony before a congressional panel on March 1, and the DoJ repeated the claim again in a March 21 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The assertion was fundamental to the application that the Justice Department filed under the All Writs Act, which sought to force Apple help the department break into a device used by terrorists in California. The law requires applicants to have no alternative remedies available other than the one they are seeking in court.
Yet on Monday, officials requested that a hearing scheduled for this week be delayed because an “outside party” had been discovered who might be able to hack the device without assistance from Apple.
Media reports on Tuesday suggested that party might be Cellebrite, an Israeli firm that specializes in data extraction. If that is the case, that poses a problem for U.S. officials, who already sought the company out for assistance hacking an iPhone in a separate drug case as long ago as Feb. 16.
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Cellebrite even boasts publicly about being able to hack iPhones. “Cellebrite has a unique unlock capability for devices running iOS 8.x that will provide you with unprecedented access to evidence you can stand behind,” states one page on the company’s website.
However, officials with the FBI and the DoJ have never mentioned Cellebrite in reference to the case. Evan Greer, the head of a popular tech group, issued a statement Wednesday suggesting the controversy agency officials are going to face if they are in fact using the well-known company.
“They should come clean immediately, and admit that they misled the court and the public, to avoid further damaging what’s left of their credibility,” said Greer, the campaign director of Fight for the Future.
Others, most notably former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, have argued that officials could be charged with perjury if their court filings are found to be untruthful.
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Officials have asked for at least two weeks to determine whether the alternative being offered by the “outside party” is viable.
