The Justice Department has successfully accessed the iPhone involved in the recent New York drug case, dropping yet another court case against Apple.
This marks the second time that authorities asked the Cupertino brand for assistance in unlocking an encrypted iPhone, found a way to get through themselves, and withdrew the demand for the company to comply with the request – the first one being the locked smartphone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters, where the FBI paid $1 million for a hacking tool to crack it.
This time around, the iPhone was broken into without the need for any intrusive software. Instead, it was opened with a passcode that an unnamed individual simply handed over, according to the government.
"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,'' prosecutors told the judge in a letter.
Justice Department spokesperson Emily Pierce said that investigators "no longer need Apple's assistance" because of the event that had unfolded during the case.
"Because we now have access to the data we sought, we notified the court of this recent development and have withdrawn our request for assistance," Pierce said, noting that the identity of the individual could not be disclosed because it's part of an ongoing investigation.
Apple declined to comment about the matter.
The device linked to the New York drug case is an iPhone 5s, and authorities acquired it from suspect Jun Feng during the investigation back in 2014.
In 2015, he admitted to his crimes and pleaded guilty, but when asked about the passcode of the handset, he said that he couldn't remember it, causing the investigators to require the help of Apple.
Interestingly, despite Pierce's comment of keeping the identity of the person who gave the passcode under wraps, people familiar with the matter reportedly said that it was Feng who came forward to provide it.
This development may have settled another case in the string of demands of the FBI to Apple, but the whole matter is far from over, as authorities still seek to have at least a dozen more iPhones unlocked.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
