Vulnerability Management

FBI iPhone hack may have cost more than $1.3M

Published reports are using an odd methodology in an attempt to decipher exactly how much the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) paid to unlock the iPhone 5c belonging to one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

According to an exchange FBI Director James Comey Jr. had with reporters at a London conference, he said “more than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure,” the New York Times reported.

The FBI director's salary is $185,000 per year, which equates to $1.35 million prorated out for the remainder of his term in office. The FBI would not confirm whether this figure is correct.

The FBI has not confirmed what company helped it break into the phone, but the Israeli firm Cellebrite has been linked to the job along with other grey hat hacking firms.

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