The FBI Is 'Going Dark' About That $1 Million Apple iPhone Hacking Method

It wouldn't be another week without a new episode in the FBI vs. Apple saga. This week, officials said the FBI is unable to disclose details about that apparent $1 million vulnerability it bought from hackers to break into the San Bernardino iPhone because it doesn't know the details. "The FBI knows how to use the phone-hacking tool it bought to open the iPhone 5c but doesn't specifically knows how it works," the Wall Street Journal reported. That ignorance no doubt is by design because it prevents the FBI from disclosing the vulnerability or vulnerabilities to the government's so-called Vulnerabilities Equities Process. The VEP is a process whereby the NSA and other government entities that discover or purchase a zero-day vulnerability or exploit have to disclose it to a government review process to determine if the security hole should be disclosed to the software vendor to be fixed or if it should be withheld so that the NSA, the FBI and other government entities can exploit the flaw to hack into the systems of surveillance targets and criminal suspects.