FBI Director James Comey looks on at a memorial built in the lobby of the Miami Field Office including a list of agents killed on duty in a gun battle with two heavily armed suspected bank robbers in (Photo : Getty Images/Joe Raedle)
FBI director James Comey hinted at an Aspen Institute event in London on Thursday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation coughed up over $1 million to access the locked iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino attackers. This is perhaps the first time that the agency has revealed the price tag it offered to crack the high-profile case.
#HappeningNow: Watch Director Comey discuss today's security challenges at #AspenSecurity https://t.co/3ClLTtFTvc
— FBI (@FBI) April 21, 2016
Responding to a query on the amount FBI spend on unlocking the iPhone at a question-and-answer session at the Aspen Security Forum, Comey said the amount was more that what he would be making in the remaining part of his job. The Washington Post quoted Comey as saying, "It was worth it."
Making the remark Comey made his remark, he paused for a while to mull over the math he was performing in his head, the publication reported. Usually, the term of an FBI director lasts for 10 years and, as per figures available from the FBI as well the US Office of Management and Budget, as of January 2015, Comey's annual salary was $183,300. Without any raise or bonus, he will be making $1.34 million during the rest of his job.
Consequently, the remarks of the FBI director meant that the bureau paid no less than $1.3 million to access the locked iPhone, which belonged to the extremist Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, gunned down 14 people during the Dec. 2 attacks in San Bernardino, Calif. Syed Farook himself fell victim to police shoot-out.
Meanwhile, when contacted, an FBI spokesman said that the bureau would not make any comment of the director's remarks. The federal authorities are yet to reveal the name of the person who assisted the FBI unlock Syed Farook's iPhone, which created a lot of bad blood between Apple and the FBI, as the latter wanted access to the handset as part of their probe into the attacks.
In March, the Justice Department just disclosed that an entity from outside the government had come forward with a technique that may well be used to unlock the Syed Farook's iPhone. This disclosure came in the wake of the federal magistrate directing Apple Inc to assist FBI hack into the iPhone, The Telegraph reported.
Federal officials confirmed that the method offered by the third party was successful, but they did not reveal anything regarding the technique used. Meanwhile, Comey said that the FBI is now capable of using software used on Syed Farook's phone on other 5c iPhones running IOS 9 software.
Watch the video wherein Comey hints FBI paid over $1 million to access locked iPhone below:
