Last week, the FBI admitted that it can unlock Apple's iPhones with the help of a company called Cellebrite, but until now it has not been known what vulnerabilities the government agency uses to gain access to the data of iDevice users.
Apple stated a few weeks ago that it will want to know the vulnerability used by the FBI in case one is found, and now the engineers from Cupertino remain eager to discover the method by which iDevices can be exploited to retrieve data.
Those from the FBI stated that they do not intend to disclose the method used to unlock iPhones, but Apple employees claim that it cannot be kept hidden for a long time and that it will eventually become public, and thus the existing vulnerability in iOS it can be closed by them.
At the moment Apple will block the respective vulnerability(s), the battle between it and the FBI will start again because the government agency will always want to have access to the data from iDevices, ideally without Apple having any involvement in providing them.
The FBI's method for breaking into a locked iPhone 5c is unlikely to remain secret for long, according to senior Apple Inc engineers and outside experts. Once it is exposed, Apple should be able to plug the encryption hole, comforting iPhone users worried that losing physical possession of their devices will leave them vulnerable to hackers.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how long the FBI will be able to keep this vulnerability secret and how long it will brag about its ability to access data from iDevices, the agency announcing so far that it will help the American authorities in various states to obtain access to information from Apple products.
