FBI爲破解iPhone花費逾140萬美元
The FBI paid more than $1.4m to hackers who developed a way to gain access to the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, leading the law enforcement agency to drop litigation against Apple intended to force the company to help break into the device.
美國聯邦調查局(FBI)花了逾140萬美元請黑客想辦法破解了聖貝納迪諾槍擊案一名襲擊者所用的iPhone，這家執法機構因此才放棄針對蘋果(Apple)的訴訟，不再一心強迫後者幫它破解該設備。
James Comey, director of the FBI, said on Thursday that the cost was “worth it”, but added that an accommodation needed to be made with Apple and other technology companies in the future, as paying outside technologists to find ways to access highly-encrypted messages on phones used by terrorist suspects was not “scalable.”
FBI局長詹姆斯•科米(James Comey)週四說，這筆錢“花得值”，但他還表示，未來需要在這方面與蘋果及其他科技公司達成和解，因爲僱傭外部技術專家想辦法獲取恐怖嫌疑分子手機上高度加密信息的做法不具“可擴展性”。
Speaking at an Aspen Security Forum event in London on Thursday, Mr Comey said: “We were able to get into the phone because, in an odd way, all the controversy around the litigation stimulated a marketplace around the world . . . for people trying to figure out if they could they break into Apple 5C running iOS9 — and those details matter because that’s the phone that the terrorists left behind.”
週四，科米在倫敦“阿斯彭安全論壇”(Aspen Security Forum)的一次活動上講話時表示：“我們之所以能夠破解這部手機，是因爲這起訴訟引發的各種爭論以一種離奇的方式，爲那些想弄清自己是否能破解運行iOS 9的iPhone 5C的人搭建起一個全球性的交流平臺。那些細節也很重要，因爲這是一部恐怖分子遺留下的手機。”
He added that: “Somebody approached from outside the government [with a solution]. We tested it and tested it, then we purchased it.”
他接着說：“有外部人士（拿着解決方案）接觸了美國政府。我們經過一再測試，然後購買了它。”
Asked how much the FBI paid, he said: “A lot. More than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure. But it was, in my view, worth it . . . I think it was very, very important that we got into that device.”
當被問及FBI爲此花了多少錢時，科米表示：“一大筆。肯定比我在現在這個崗位上幹到退休拿得多，我還有七年零四個月退休。但在我看來，這筆錢花得值……我認爲最最重要的是我們破解了這部設備。”
Mr Comey’s annual salary was $183,800 last year, suggesting his agency paid about $1.4m to the as-yet-unknown hackers who developed the method to break into the device.
科米去年的年薪是18.38萬美元，這意味着FBI向想辦法破解了這部設備的黑客支付了約140萬美元。黑客的身份至今仍未揭曉。
The FBI director added that he wanted to find a long-term solution with technology groups such as Apple and Facebook, which both used end-to-end encryption on some of their messaging services, to avoid the need to pay outside parties if confronted with a similar situation in the future.
科米還表示，他希望能與蘋果和Facebook——這兩家公司都在它們的某些信息服務上採用端到端加密——等科技公司一起找到一項長期解決方案，這樣未來若再遭遇類似情況就不必再僱傭外部人士了。
“I’m hoping we can get to a sensible solution that doesn’t involve hacking and that doesn’t involving spending loads of money,” he said.
科米說：“我希望我們能找到一個合理的解決方案，既不涉及破解，也不涉及花費大量的金錢。”
