What does the FBI iPhone hack mean?
The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn its legal action against Apple to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, because the FBI managed to hack into it without Apple's help.
The court filing provided no details about how the FBI did it or who showed it how. The FBI is now reviewing the information on the iPhone, the Justice Department said in a statement.
In response, Apple said in a statement that it will continue to increase the security of its products.
The story raises a host of legal, technical and consumer questions.
What do you make of the news that the FBI hacked into an iPhone? Here's how the conversation went:
(Please note that usernames are not necessarily the names of commenters. Some comments have been altered to correct spelling and to conform to CBC style. Click on the username to see the complete comment in the blog format.)
"A lot of people are angry that Apple didn't help, but when it comes to police using tools within the legal framework of using warrants to access data, we have seen that the police don't always follow the rules. Another point is that governments aren't immune from hackers, so if they have a secret backdoor into peoples lives, at some point so will criminal hackers." — FMPsportsguy
"It means that Apple's products aren't as secure or impenetrable as they'd like people to believe. Pair this fact with Apple's continuing lack of innovation and you have a company that truly is overrated." — Typoprone
"Now it's Apple that looks silly with its posturing and will have some explaining to do. Their products have weaknesses just like any other." — Guy Lavoie
"It means more burner phones. Maybe some you can actually burn when you are done." — Eric Leduc
"Remember, they broke a 5C, not a 6 or 6S, you can bet Apple has either already fixed it, knew about it and let the Feds find it, or have already fixed it in my last OS update for newer phone. This is lots of noise, means nothing." — Chef Mike Benninger
"If the FBI actually did hack the new iPhone system, it just means that the crooks and spies will not be far behind, which means that the technology companies will be looking for new and better methods to defeat hackers and ensure privacy and security. It's an endless fight. Best solution for users is to never put anything on your phone that you don't want someone else to find eventually." — Axme Nicely
"I tend to agree with Edward Snowden on this one - that the government already had the means to open the phone, but they instead wanted to use this as a test case to 1) see if they could force a company to bend to their will, and 2) get Apple to produce a tool that could then be distributed to all levels of law enforcement so that they could also access phones that are seized." — JohnnyConcerned
"This is the correct outcome, in my opinion. The FBI has upped their game, and got the data that they needed. Meanwhile, companies like Apple should continue to provide the best security features possible, and not be expected to corrupt those features." — Burning Man
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