A report Wednesday claims FBI agents have not yet discovered useful information from an iPhone 5c linked to last year's San Bernardino terror attack, a device that just last month was at the center of a high-profile court battle involving Apple.
According to a law enforcement source familiar with the matter, data extracted from a passcode locked iPhone used by terror suspect Syed Rizwan Farook has yet to produce a breakthrough in the FBI's case, though the agency's analysis is ongoing, reports CBS News.
In February, Apple was ordered to assist FBI efforts in accessing Farook's iPhone, but the company resisted. Government and law enforcement officials pushed the issue as part of a media blitz, suggesting Apple's move might put citizens in danger if the device were to contain vital intelligence about accomplices, or plans for a follow-up attack.
While the Justice Department never claimed knowledge of the target iPhone's contents, the government molded this uncertainty to promote a sense of urgency in resolving its public fight with Apple. In light of calls to give to FBI requests, the company did not bend and maintained that the creation of a workaround to its own security protocols would imperil millions of iOS device users.
The motion to compel Apple's assistance was ultimately rendered moot when an outside party presented the FBI with a working exploit capable of extracting Farook's data.
Today's news comes one week after FBI lawyer James A. Baker refused to comment on whether or not agents had found "useful" information from the cracked device.
"It was worth the fight to make sure that we have turned over every rock that we can with respect to the investigation," Baker said. "We owe it to the victims and the families to make sure that we pursue every logical lead."