Could the iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists behind the deadly San Bernardino shooting in December contain more than just information about its owner? Could it actually be a weapon? The San Bernardino District Attorney thinks it's possible.
According to a court filing by San Bernardino DA Michael Ramos, first reported on by Ars Technica, the "seized IPhone may contain evidence that can only be found on the seized phone that it was used as a weapon to introduce a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino Count's infrastructure."
This is an interesting point of view by the DA: While it's possible that the iPhone contains a dangerous worm or other sort of malware, which may pose a threat to security, the question is whether it's plausible -- especially without other evidence to support the claim.
Security expert Jonathan Zdziarski sees it as far-fetched. "It sounds like he’s making up these terms as he goes," Zdziarski said in a phone interview with Ars Technica. "Do they have any evidence whatsoever to show there is any kind of cyber pathogen on the network or any logs or network captures to show that Farook's phone tried to introduce some unauthorized code into the system?"
In a follow-up email to Ars, Zdziarski sums it up as follows: "This reads as an amicus designed to mislead the courts into acting irrationally in an attempt to manipulate a decision in the FBI's favor. (...) They are essentially saying that a magical unicorn might exist on this phone."
The discussion around the seized iPhone became a very public one after Apple CEO Tim Cook published an open letter in February, explaining why Apple refuses to create any type of backdoor for the iPhone seized by the FBI. In a subsequent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, the FBI explained it wants Apple to help it override some of the iPhone's security features, claiming the techniques would only be used in this one particular case. Apple stood firm, claiming that succumbing to the FBI's request would "affect everyone who owns an iPhone."
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