Well, if the press reports are true, then the FBI has made a smart move. A radio news report (CBS Network) I heard a few moments ago stated that the FBI hired a company (or the company volunteered its services) to attain access to the iphone’s software files. The company was paid and now the FBI is the exclusive owner of the software tool that was used to open the murderers’ phone or phones.
Them and the company that made it. No company would hand everything over without keeping a backup.
Anyways, it won’t be long before Apple creates another, more powerful, software to prevent it from being hacked.
There was an article I read that wondered if Apple would ask to find out how their phone was hacked. To prevent any further security breaches. Will Apple ask? Will the feds laugh? It’s truly a strange situation.
And that too will be cracked.
So goes the encryption battle back and forth…
“Them and the company that made it. No company would hand everything over without keeping a backup.”
Infinity, if the contract was written this way, the FBI is the exclusive owner of the rights associated with the software. Even though you have a copy of some operating system on your computer, you do not own “your” copy of the operating system - it is given to you under a license with a very limited bundle of rights. For instance, you cannot legally make copies or modify the software. The exclusive licensee or owner controls that. So if the company kept a copy and did the development as “work for hire” for the FBI, the company does not “own” that copy - it cannot legally bargain with anyone else to license the software or sell a copy. So Apple is out luck. 
The announcement put Apple in an awkward spot.
It could be a save face for the FBI, but it could also demystify that Apple technology is unbreakable.
I never think that Apple technology is unbreakable. Some Apple ex-employees, China, Russia, the hackers, and even the terrorists could find the way to break it. And another bad thing: they break it but they don’t announce.
Years ago I heard a tech guy (I think it was the founder of Netscape) say that any encryption can be hacked, if you had loads of free time (and probably loads of money). I mean, Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee issue security updates ALL THE TIME!!!
The FBI always tells the truth, of course.
My point exactly. What’s to stop an immoral employ from selling out?
You trust Apple more than you trust an Israeli company? Your logic applies to Apple as well… What is going to stop some rogue Apple employee from selling their secrets to the Russians, for instance? And then providing a shelter for him/her like they did for that scumbag Snowden?
Hee hee… Israeli security experts have been very busy lately. I hear Europe is turning to them for help after the latest terror attacks.