Surprising as it may seem, but it is true. A researcher demonstrated how to unlock an iPhone password by spending just around $100. This is contradictory to the amount that the FBI spent in unlocking one, used by a shooter in San Diego – which is approximately $1.3 million. In comparison, the amount spent by the hacker is only a little percentage of the amount FBI used in their investigation.
As cited in The Guardian, a computer scientist from Cambridge University stated that an iPhone could be hacked by buying items that are low in price and could be seen easily.
The process of hacking was made through NAND Mirroring. Sergei Skorogobatov countered the statement of James Comey, an FBI Director, saying that the process is feasible and it is possible to crack information of any iPhone item up to Apple’s iPhone 6.
He released a video and a paper regarding the entire process. Skorogobatov’s video implied that there are 10,000 possible combinations that can be examined in just an estimated time of 41 hours or less than two days.
The items used, according to the source, can be bought online – through Amazon or Alibaba in approximately $100. This is inversely proportional to the total FBI budget intended to break into the information of the gunman, Syed Farook.
In the site VICE News, news publications announced that they filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI in federal courts looking for records related to the items the FBI had bought to unlock the iPhone’s code.
Earlier, FBI and Apple had an argument as to the private information stored on the iPhone used by the gunman. But Apple, living up to its statements, disagreed with the process stating that it could affect and threaten the security of iPhone users.
