A cellphone expert overrode the lock function on an Apple iPhone to help
Los Angeles police in a homicide investigation around the time US
authorities were battling the company to open other phones in criminal
cases, court records showed on Thursday.
The successful hack of the
iPhone 5s in the Los Angeles case is another sign US authorities are
turning to third-party contractors to unlock smartphones rather than
relying on manufacturers like Apple Inc, which helped in the past. The
third-party hacks have Apple racing to strengthen its encryption
technology.
Los Angeles police gained access to the iPhone of
April Jace, the wife of "The Shield" actor Michael Jace, who is accused
of shooting her to death, at their home in May 2014.
Police
investigators learned on March 18 that a forensic cellphone expert,
whose identity was not released, could "override the locked iPhone
function" on April Jace's phone to extract data, Detective Connie Zych
wrote in a search warrant affidavit.
That was around the time the
US government was locked in a legal battle with Apple over requests the
company unlock the iPhone 5c used by Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters
in the San Bernardino killings.
Apple refused to bypass the
encryption features on Farook's phone on grounds it could undermine
security for all users. The company declined to comment on the Jace
case.
The override of April Jace's iPhone 5s was less of a technical feat than the unlocking of Farook's iPhone 5c.
Jace's
phone predated the iOS 8 operating system, which Apple introduced in
fall 2014 with strengthened encryption methods. The contractor who
unlocked Farook's iPhone 5c had to get past iOS 9, an operating system
released in September 2015.
Apple helped authorities gain access
to iPhones about 70 times before changing its position last year, court
documents have shown.
It was unclear which OS was installed on Jace's iPhone. Her killing came after Apple released iOS 7, but before iOS 8.
In
another high-profile case, the US Department of Justice fought Apple in
court seeking to force the company to assist authorities in accessing
an iPhone 5s with iOS7 seized as evidence in a New York drug case.
Last
month, the Department of Justice dropped the effort when it disclosed
someone provided authorities the passcode to the device.
The hack
of April Jace's iPhone appears to be related to an order in January by
the judge to allow Michael Jace's defense team access to the phone.
Michael
Jace's attorney in January argued in court the actor suspected his wife
was having an affair and may have become enraged moments before the
shooting, after seeing something on her iPhone, according to a report at
the time from the New York Daily News.
© Thomson Reuters 2016
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