FBI Paid More Than $1.3M To Break Into San Bernardino iPhone

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Why do I have the feeling that this guy is just yanking everyone's chain. I mean, $1.3 million is a lot of money to pay some random hackers to break into that phone. Don't they normally just threaten you with jail time unless you do their bidding? Did they have a money back guarantee in place?

According to figures from the FBI and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Comey's annual salary as of January 2015 was $183,300. Without a raise or bonus, Comey will make $1.34 million over the remainder of his job. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in London, Comey was asked by a moderator how much the FBI paid for the software that eventually broke into the iPhone. "A lot. More than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months for sure," Comey said. "But it was, in my view, worth it."
 
It was worth it? Didn't they find nothing? It may had been the right decision, but in hindsight certainly not "worth it".
 
It was worth it because he made 1.3 million and doesn't care about anyone security. On the bright side we have his name now and games begin :) Have a feeling all his internet accounts will be locked up for quite some time now. On the bright side he has 1.3 million to go spend while he can't use the internet. :D
 
Sometimes you just have to show up the other guy to prove you're the more capable man.

It's worth a lot to the FBI and US to be able to show Apple up - more than a million dollars it seems.
 
$1.3 mil sounds pretty feasible for the total cost (salaries, vendor costs, etc.) of the efforts to unlock the phone.

So...anyone else shocked that the Director of the FBI makes under $200k a year?

PsychoAMD said:
It was worth it because he made 1.3 million and doesn't care about anyone security. On the bright side we have his name now and games begin :) Have a feeling all his internet accounts will be locked up for quite some time now. On the bright side he has 1.3 million to go spend while he can't use the internet. :D
Click to expand...

Wut? Seriously, wut dafuq are you talking about?

James Comey is the Director of the FBI. We've always had his name.
 
Devilpup said:
Wait, the gov wastes money?

When the fuck did this start happening?
Click to expand...
always this bullshit... private waste even more money they just print their own and can make things look awesome and sophisticated and shit, in general.
 
If I was one of a handful of people on the planet that could pull off something the FBI couldn't, I would charge a million bucks too.
 
This was a work phone that the suspect knew was being monitored. Both of them had personal phones which they destroyed before they did the shootings. If there was anything on this one they would have destroyed it as well so this was a waste of money.
In addition the phone was backing up to iCloud. If they had just brought it close to a known wifi like at the house or the place of employment it would have done a final up to date backup. It was not able to do this because they changed the password on the account. The phone could not backup anymore due to their negligence.
 
Parja said:
$1.3 mil sounds pretty feasible for the total cost (salaries, vendor costs, etc.) of the efforts to unlock the phone.

So...anyone else shocked that the Director of the FBI makes under $200k a year?
Click to expand...

I wonder if that's just from a general fund and there's more money coming in from elsewhere. Kind of like how Jim Harbaugh at U of M makes like 7 million/yr but he only gets like 300k from the general fund?
 
Parja said:
So...anyone else shocked that the Director of the FBI makes under $200k a year?
Click to expand...

Public sector, only the corrupt make money. The rest are either low profile and working towards their pension or setting up the post-government speech and contracting circuit.
 
Again, this isn't about just one phone. This is the same thing they were trying to do with the case with Apple, set a precedence. Now, they have a tool that unlock iphone 5c models that are running IOS. From the article:

"There are about 16 million 5C iPhones in use in the United States, according to estimates from research firm IHS Technology. Eighty-four percent of iOS devices overall are running iOS 9 software, according to Apple."

This just proves the point they wanted a tool to break into not just this phone, but any others down the line that they end up with. I'm not sure how the numbers directly correlate, from the article but now this is their key. The thing is they initially wanted to force Apple to get them into the phones, set a legal precedence, and do it for free... Now, there isn't a precedent, they paid 1.3x million dollars of tax payer money, but they have a tool to get into phones.
 
And I'm sure Apple will drop iOS10 just to change up everything and render their new tool useless.
 
jpcahn1 said:
This was a work phone that the suspect knew was being monitored. Both of them had personal phones which they destroyed before they did the shootings. If there was anything on this one they would have destroyed it as well so this was a waste of money.
In addition the phone was backing up to iCloud. If they had just brought it close to a known wifi like at Wthe house or the place of employment it would have done a final up to date backup. It was not able to do this because they changed the password on the account. The phone could not backup anymore due to their negligence.
Click to expand...
Was it negligence or did they want to create a crisis only a Back Door could solve.

Maybe a Back Door & 1.3 Mil could solve. It was a contracted security firm they directed to f up the password. They generated a scenario to be able to get the funds to pay a firm to develop the back door.
 
Parja said:
So...anyone else shocked that the Director of the FBI makes under $200k a year?
Click to expand...

The lucky ones get paid by private companies to day nice things and push legislation that helps the private company. Ex Secretary of Department Of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff is a good example. He "forgot" to mention that he was financially compensated by the company that made body scanners while he lobbied to put body scanners in airports. Woops. Wasn't found guilty of any wrong doing either.
 
usually tips leading to the arrest and conviction of a person... that are value and verifiable information from another valid source and you can't use two sources to verify each other to get valid status, is usually based on the damages in question... so if he evaded taxes to the turn of say 130 million and they recovered 13 million then that is ten percent of what they recovered through that guys actions... of course you would have to get a copy of the detailed agency budget to find out why he got paid that much but that might actually be something you could file a freedom of information request after what it is fifty years? it might have all the sensitive info redacted through...
 
It seems to me if they had found something, they sure as hell wouldn't tell us about it. No, it is unlikely there was a list of badguys on the phone, but it could still play a valuable part in piecing together the mind of a man leading a double life. I think of this phone as the control group, part of the facade he created to mask his other activities, and scrutinizing that for any cracks could help in the future. Maybe next time they should find a coupon for 50% off, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top