FBI paid less than $1M for iPhone hack -- and doesn't know how it works.

Any iPhone 5C running iOS 9 can now be hacked by the FBI. Apple

How much is it to hack an iPhone? Not as much as we thought.

The FBI has paid less than $ 1 million to hack the iPhone 5C of one of the shooters San Bernardino, Reuters reported Friday, a figure lower than some observers had previously estimated.


FBI Director James Comey said last week the government had spent more money than it has been to the rest of the running of the office term. This was calculated at $ 1.3 million.

The software mechanism bought by the FBI for an undisclosed security company can also be used by the government to unlock other 5C iPhone models running the latest software from Apple, although the FBI does not understand how it works, the sources cited by Reuters said.

The FBI declined to comment beyond what he has already said in public statements, but CNET directed to a page entitled "Going Dark show" about the interception of communications.

The agency purchased the mechanism after Apple refused to create a backdoor through its encrypted software, despite a court order demanding does.

Apple has opposed the government's request, saying it was impossible to break its own encryption and creating a workaround might jeopardize the safety of all iPhones. The transparency report the company released earlier this week shows met about 80 percent of the requests made by the US government in the second half of last year.

The technology industry has gathered around Apple lending support as he prepared to fight the FBI in court. But the government dropped the case after finding another way to break the security of the phone.

Comey could know that the hack was expensive, but the sources cited by Reuters said he does not know which company provided the technology, despite his seniority. Previous reports have suggested an Israeli security cabinet was behind the hack.


The mechanism was purchased with a single payment and can be used again.

The content of the iPhone, which belonged to San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Syed Farook, are still under consideration, but initial investigations are not considered to have produced remarkable discoveries. In particular, the FBI hopes to discover if Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, co-conspirators.