Security News > 2020 > January > FBI asks Apple to help it unlock iPhones of naval base shooter
The FBI has asked Apple to help it unlock two iPhones that belonged to the murderer Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who shot and killed three young US Navy students in a shooting spree at a Florida naval base last month.
Yes, the FBI has tried the tactics it used when it was trying to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook.
Namely, the bureau says that it's asked for help from other federal agencies - it sent the iPhones to the FBI's crime lab in Quantico, Virginia - and from experts in other countries, as well as "Familiar contacts in the third-party vendor community."
That could be a reference to the tool that the FBI used to finally break into Farook's encrypted phone and thereby render moot the FBI versus Apple legal battle over encryption.
In March 2018, the US Department of Justice's internal inspector general came out with a rather damning report about the San Bernardino investigation, noting that the FBI "Did not pursue all possible avenues in the search for a solution" before contacting Apple.