It turns out the agency paid hackers to crack the iPhone used by the San Bernardino attackers. The revelation comes after the FBI abruptly announced it would not need Apple’s assistance in bypassing the phone’s security features after all.
The agency paid a one-time fee to a group of professional hackers who came to them with a workaround of a security measure that wipes any data if you try to bypass the user’s passcode too many times. According to The Washington Post, at least one of the hackers falls into a murky gray area between malicious hackers who steal people’s private information and so-called white hat hackers who help manufacturers find any security lapses.