A federal judge has granted an FBI request to force Apple to unlock an iPhone 6 connected to an investigation of an alleged member of the Columbia Point Dawgs, a gang operating in the Boston area. This order, unsealed April 8, means that Apple will need to provide “reasonable technical assistance” so law enforcement can “may then perform a search of the device data.”
The FBI and Department of Justice dropped their attempt to force Apple’s hand in unlocking the iPhone 5c recovered during the investigation of the San Bernardino December 2015 Shooting, after an undisclosed third-party supplied a tool that could crack the tool.
FBI General Counsel James Baker declined to specify if the FBI had managed to recover any useful data from the iPhone when asked however, and FBI General Counsel James Baker has said publicly that the tool doesn’t work on the iPhone 5s generation or later. This is most likely because the FBI’s newly acquired tool takes advantage of the lack of the Secret Enclave feature that was only introduced by Apple with the 5s.
Desmond Crawford, the owner of iPhone in question in the Boston case, owns a 128GB Space Grey iPhone 6 Plus that was purchased with iOS 8.1.3 installed . While Apple introduced the device encryption causing the “going dark” problem, as Comey puts it, with iOS 8, it is unknown if Crawford has updated his device to iOS 9. There could possibly a software flaw that the FBI could exploit with the older iOS generation, but it’s a big if.
If Crawford did upgrade his iPhone 6 Plus to iOS 9, then Apple will surely drag their heels in complying with the request for the same reasons they argued against the San Bernardino court order.
