FBI Hacks New York iPhone

          This is the second iPhone hacked in just two months

Bogdan Popa

The United States Department of Justice has recently announced that it dropped its legal request to have Apple unlock an iPhone involved in a New York drug case as the FBI managed to hack the device on its own.

This is the second iPhone hacked by the FBI in just two months, raising more concerns that more devices could be exposed to the unlocking software held by the bureau.

According to court documents, an “individual” provided the passcode for the iPhone 5s belonging to Jun Feng, who was involved in a drug case in Brooklyn. Feng previously said that he forgot the password for the device, so the FBI asked Apple to break into the iPhone.

It’s not yet clear if the individual that the FBI names in its court papers is working for the agency or is an outside party, but more information will certainly emerge in the coming days.

“The government respectfully submits this letter to update the Court and the parties. Yesterday evening, an individual provided the passcode to the iPhone at issue in this case. Late last night, the government used that passcode by hand and gained access to the iPhone. Accordingly, the government no longer needs Apple's assistance to unlock the iPhone, and withdraws its application,” the US DoJ said in the document.

The San Bernardino hacking method

At this point, it’s not known if the FBI used the same method to unlock the New York iPhone as it did in the San Bernardino case, when the agency was seeking access to the device belonging to one of the shooters.

The FBI said that the hack developed for the San Bernardino iPhone could only be used on the iPhone 5c. The New York iPhone is a 5s running iOS 7.

Apple hasn’t yet issued a statement on this, but the company previously refused to help the FBI, claiming that the agency can do the whole thing on its own. It appears that the FBI indeed had the resources to hack the iPhone, which is only more worrying for Apple customers after the agency managed to unlock two different iPhones in just a couple of months.