When FBI Director James Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee last month to detail the barriers encryption technology poses for law enforcement investigations, he was quick to hold up the San Bernardino terrorist attack as a worst-case scenario.
But he also emphasized that the inability to access data on victims’ and suspects’ cellphones was creating a huge problem for local police investigating domestic crimes ranging from robberies to murders.
“A woman was murdered in Louisiana last summer. Eight months pregnant, killed. No clue as to who did it,” Mr. Comey at the time, highlighting the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Brittany Mills in Baton Rouge. “Except her phone is there when she was found and they couldn’t open it — still can’t open it and the case remains unsolved.”
So a third party’s success this week in helping the FBI unlock and gain access to the iPhone belonging to deceased San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook, opens the possibility that the bureau could potentially turn its secret weapon loose in such criminal cases.
How broadly the FBI might eventually use its new tactic to unlock iPhones, or how successful it will be on different cellphone models or devices, is unclear. The bureau has declined thus far to talk about the techniques used or to identify the third party that was able to provide the assistance.
Reports emerged this week that the FBI had agreed to help unlock an iPhone and iPod that Arkansas prosecutors think could hold evidence in a double murder. But FBI officials, who acknowledged that their Little Rock field office did receive a request for assistance in unlocking Apple devices, sought to walk back reports on the agreement.
SEE ALSO: Justice Department to drop encryption case against Apple: report
“At the time of the request, no information was provided regarding the device models or operating systems, so FBI Little Rock was not able to state if they would be able to provide assistance,” said FBI spokesman Christopher Allen on Thursday. “The FBI does not currently have possession of the devices.”
As of Thursday, Louisiana prosecutors had also not received any word as to whether they might also expect assistance in the investigation of the Baton Rouge homicide that Mr. Comey mentioned during his appearance before Congress in February.
But East Baton Rouge District Attorney, Hillar Moore III, said he was skeptical of the agreement that Arkansas prosecutors disclosed Wednesday.
“It’s probably the same thing I’ve been told by the FBI, which is ’We will help you when we can,’” Mr. Moore said. “They initially hoped they would be able to help us, but they never committed.”
Though Mr. Moore has been in contact with the FBI for months about the encryption issue, and the role it could potentially play in finding Mills’ killer, he said he’s yet to have had “that level of discussion.”
Investigators don’t know whether Mills’ iPhone might contain any clues that could help the case, but officials have said the 29-year-old mother kept a diary on the phone.
SEE ALSO: FBI: Might be a way to unlock San Bernardino attacker iPhone
Mr. Moore said he’s hoping to hear back from FBI officials on whether the secret method could potentially be used on Mills’ phone.
The FBI’s breakthrough in accessing the San Bernardino shooter’s phone could potentially open the door for investigators across the country who have been unable to access data on phones related to criminal investigations. Apple had rebuffed requests to help the FBI hack the San Bernardino iPhone, arguing that doing so would set a dangerous precedent.
So the disclosure Wednesday by Arkansas’ Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland that the FBI had agreed to a request to try to unlock the devices that belonged to two teenagers accused a double murder made waves.
Mr. Hiland told The Associated Press that the FBI had agreed to try to unlock the devices belonging to 18-year-old Hunter Drexler and 15-year-old Justin Staton. The boys are accused of killing Robert and Patricia Cogdell, who raised Mr. Staton as a grandson, at their home in 2015.
The trial of one of the accused teens, Mr. Drexler, was pushed back from Tuesday until June as a result.
According to The Associated Press, prosecutors have had possession of the iPhone they say belongs to Mr. Drexler since he was arrested days after the killings. An iPod belonging to Mr. Staton was turned over to prosecutors last week and prosecutors believe that he used the device to communicate about the plans to kill the couple.
Mr. Allen said Thursday that requests from local law enforcement for technical assistance in unlocking devices are considered on a case-by-case basis and that FBI’s handling of the Arkansas request was “not related to the San Bernardino matter.”
In the meantime, the number of locked iPhones that investigators can’t extract data from continues to mount.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance previously disclosed that out of 734 Apple devices received by his agency’s cyber lab as part of criminal investigations between October 2014 and February 2016, investigators have been unable to extract data from 205 devices.
While his office declined to comment on any discussions prosecutors have had with the FBI about the potential to unlock some of those phones using the new secret method, he appeared to temper expectations.
“The overwhelming majority of criminal investigations stalled by default device encryption will remain so until Congress intervenes,” Mr. Vance said in a statement. “We cannot ask crime victims across 3,000 local jurisdictions to stake their hope for justice on an unending technological arms race between the government and Apple.”
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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