The US Justice Department (US DoJ) claims to have successfully unlocked the iPhone used by one the San Bernardino shooters and dropped its impending legal case against Apple, reports Reuters. The report states the US DoJ tied up with an ‘unidentified outside party’ which presented a technique to unlock the iPhone. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) filed an order asking Apple to unlock the iPhone used by the attacker. The order is based on a 227 year old All Writs Act, which gives courts power to issue orders that do not fall under a pre-existing law. In response, Apple CEO Tim Cook published a letter on Apple’s website, which stated that the company would challenge the order. The iPhone has a PIN authentication security feature which automatically wipes user data on a certain number of unsuccessful tries. The attacker’s phone used this feature, and to disable it, Apple would essentially have to create an alternate operating system that bypassed this security measure and push it as an update. However, this code could then be used to unlock other iPhones as well, and it would be extremely hard to limit it to one device. Apple’s statement: Apple issued a response to the recent development stating that it had objected to FBI’s demand to build a backdoor into the iPhone because it believed “it was wrong and would set a dangerous precedent”. “As a result of the government's dismissal, neither of these occurred. This case should never have been brought,” added Apple. iPhone backdoor…
