FBI Unlocked iPhone- What it means for users

The FBI has recently achieved a massive goal of having access to the data on terrorist’s phone. A technique called ‘lawful hacking’ played a vital role in ending up the ongoing legal battle between the FBI and the Cupertino giant Apple. It is interesting to know that how this move impacts the users of iPhones and iPads, and what it means for Apple’s much tagged ‘secured’ products.

Though FBI has got access to terrorist’s iPhone through the third-party hackers, various experts say that this type of a white hat or lawful hacking is beneficial for the users as it will make their iPhones and iPads more secure and safer in the future. We can give two prime reasons for it:

1. Disclosure of vulnerabilities : It is the federal government of the US that decides about sharing vulnerabilities with the respective tech companies for the sake of fixing. It implies that Apple may get a revelation about the bug responsible for having access to terrorist’s iPhone in the future, and the tech giant can fix it. For example, US National Security Agency has revealed that it disclosed 91 percent of the vulnerabilities it had found.

However, this possibility is a way remote in this case due to a legal battle between Apple and the FBI.

2. Challenge for the company : Apple is renowned for its privacy-focused approach for its product range. Even if the FBI does not disclose a bug, the company will take this issue as a challenge, and certainly try to make sure that in future, no other security agencies or federal agencies can get access to iPhones or iPads.

As the FBI move has intensified the struggle between breaking and securing software, it is beneficial for the users.

The FBI incident has cleared one aspect: though Apple is known for its secured encryption codes, the hackers are smarter than the tech giant in decoding them. Now, there is a possibility that Apple could come up with the device impenetrable for the security agencies. Then again, the security agencies will take help from the hackers to decode the device to follow the orders of the court.

In a way, it is worth to mention that the battle between the tech companies and government security agency looks to continue forever. In the turbulent times when either hackers or the government-backed agencies can breach the smartphones for any reasons, all the tech companies cannot breathe a sigh of relief that is ultimately beneficial for the users.