Mystery of Who Cracked the San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone for the FBI Solved

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When the U.S. government wanted to break into a dead terrorist’s iPhone several years ago, they turned to a little-known cybersecurity startup in Australia to help them do it, a Washington Post investigation has revealed. Azimuth Security, located in Sydney, specializes in providing “best-of-breed technical services” to clients, according to its website.

Those services allowed the FBI to unlock the cell phone of Syed Rizwan Farook who, along with his wife Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people in Southern California during the so-called “San Bernardino terrorist attack” in 2015. The two later died in a gun battle with police. At the time, the government naturally wanted to know if the couple had ties to foreign extremists groups, and the killer’s phone data was seen as a natural way to find out.

So, the government paid Azimuth some $900,000 to help them literally crack the case. The firm’s contract with the government was exposed by the Post on Wednesday and confirmed by additional reporting from Motherboard. The news solves a years-long mystery about the identity of the hackers, the likes of which has been a well-kept government secret until now.