Thomas· Matthew · Crooks, the suspects in the recent assassination of former President Donald · Trump, were shot dead on the spot, and the mobile phone he left behind also fell into the hands of the FBI, but because the phone is password protected, and according to Apple's consistent style, it has always refused to crack it, and no one can do it, not even the Department of Justice.
At present, although the suspect is silent about which model of the mobile phone is, the media speculates that it is likely to be an iPhone.
Why the speculation?
Because on Sunday, the FBI announced that we have the suspect's mobile phone, but it feels difficult to crack this mobile phone, at least the FBI in Pennsylvania will definitely not be able to handle it. Source: New York Times.
They had no choice but to send it to the Virginia headquarters in Quantico for further analysis.
Originally, this matter could be solved by Apple, but helplessly, Apple has refused to cooperate before. The two sides also went to court, and Apple's users all supported Apple's approach. There are also many United States who have left messages to Apple, if you dare to help the FBI provide password unlocking, we will not use the Apple phone for life.
In 2016, the United States Department of Justice launched a legal battle with Apple in an attempt to force Apple to modify its iOS operating system to bypass password protection on the killer's device in the San Bernardino shooting (see the end of the article for background information). Apple categorically disagrees, citing privacy violations.
Later, the FBI had to hire Azimuth Security, a top hacking company, to hack into the phone, and the case was dropped.
The latest news shows that the FBI of United States has successfully unlocked the suspect's mobile phone with the help of black technology without relying on Apple, and perhaps, there will be more information about the suspect's motives in the future.
According to the information currently available, the trajectory of the suspect's activities in the past 48 hours has been roughly pieced together.
On the day of the attack, Crookes purchased 50 rounds of ammunition at a local gun store in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, CNN reported.
The day before, Crookes had gone to a shooting range to practice shooting.
The next morning, he went to Home Depot to buy a five-foot ladder.
Crookes then drove the Hyundai Sonata north to Butler, Pennsylvania, to join thousands of people attending Trump rally. The car was equipped with an improvised explosive device, connected to the launcher that Crookes was carrying.
On the day of the attack
Crookes used a ladder to climb a building near the Butler Farm Exhibit and shot Trump, the former president, minutes after he delivered a speech.
Crox uses an AR-15-style rifle, one of more than 20 guns his father owns.
This aerial photograph was taken on July 15 in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the Butler Farm Show, the site of the Trump campaign rally.
Witnesses said Crooks was acting suspiciously and called the police to law enforcement. Despite this, Crookes managed to climb onto the roof, from where he shot multiple bullets, wounding Trump and killing 50-year-old spectator Corry · Comperatore.
Although the suspect's phone was hacked and his computer was searched, they did not find a motive for the suspect.
Instead, his online activities show a typical interest in computer coding and gaming. A remote-controlled detonator was found on Crookes, and in the trunk of his car there was a metal box with explosives, which was attached to the receiver, suggesting that he might have planned a more destructive attack.
According to Business Insider (BI), Bill Pickle, a former agent in charge of the details ·of Al·Gore's Vice President's Secret Service, said that "the moment the kid fired, within a second, the anti-sniper (CS) shot him".
The gunman shot the roof of the former president of United States quite close to where Trump gave his speech.
An analysis by the Associated Press found that the gunman's body had blood on his head and was lying on the roof of a manufacturing plant north of the Butler Farms Fairgrounds, where Trump was rallying. The roof is just 150 meters from where the Republican presidential candidate stands.
What did Crook's acquaintances say about him?
Crookes graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, and his former classmates described him as a smart but quiet student who enjoyed playing chess and video games, as well as learning computer coding.
Some of his classmates recalled that he had been expelled from the school rifle club for misaiming, and one of them told ABC News: "Not only was he not selected for the team, but he was asked not to come again because his shooting skills were so poor." This is considered dangerous. ”
Despite his quiet demeanor, one classmate commented that he was thought to be someone who might "shoot at school," although this was considered an exaggeration at the time.
According to 404 Media, the FBI confirmed in a newsmail on Monday that their technologist had gained access to Crox's phone and was analyzing his electronic devices. This is in stark contrast to the authorities' statement on Sunday, where they said they were unable to unlock their phones.
Now the FBI has also learned to behave, and since Apple does not agree, it will do it itself. They spend a fortune to buy hacking tools from foreign entities like Cellebrite.
GrayKey and Cellebrite are advanced tools widely used in digital forensics to access data on mobile devices such as smartphones.
GrayKey was developed by Grayshift specifically to unlock iPhones and extract the data in them. It bypasses security measures like passwords and encryption to retrieve things like messages, call logs, and photos.
Law enforcement agencies and forensic investigators typically connect GrayKey to the iPhone through the lightning port. By combining software and hardware technologies, it exploits vulnerabilities in the iOS operating system. While GrayKey is effective, it has access to sensitive information, which raises serious concerns about privacy and security.
Cellebrite UFED (Universal Forensic Extraction Device) is another well-known forensic tool capable of extracting data from a variety of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets across various operating systems.
Unlike GrayKey, Cellebrite UFED supports a wide range of device types except for iPhones. It can bypass security mechanisms, recover deleted data, and extract all kinds of information stored on the device. The tool is used by forensic experts from law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the private sector around the world.
Despite the prevalence of both devices among law enforcement agencies across the United States, the FBI has repeatedly asked companies like Apple for "good guy back doors," but Apple has steadfastly refused, citing concerns about consumer privacy. Later, Apple made a slight concession and could only provide the data stored in iCloud if forced to hand over the data. If the user himself has enabled Advanced Data Protection or refuses to store most of their data in the cloud, Apple doesn't care.
Background information
12·2 San Bernardino shooting shooting
- Date of Occurrence: December 2, 2015
- Location: San Bernardino, a city in southern California
- What happened: Three suspects armed with AK-47s broke into a large office building in San Bernardino and opened fire on a crowd of employees who were holding a holiday celebration.
- Casualties: 14 people killed, at least 25 injured.
- Emergency Response: Police find a suspicious package at the scene of the crime, dispatch an EOD robot to deal with it, and search for the suspect. One of the suspects was shot by police and subdued along the north side of Interstate 10 in the city, and the other two suspects were shot dead in the days that followed.
- Suspect's background: The father of one of the suspects, Syed Farook, said that his son was a Muslim. Malik, the gunman involved in the San Bernardino shooting, and her husband may have been "ultra-radical" and had been influenced by the ideology of a foreign terrorist group, but the couple themselves were not members of a terrorist group.
- Reactions: United States President Barack Obama made a nationally televised address in the Oval Office of the White House, characterizing the incident as a terrorist attack for the first time and vowing to destroy the Islamic State extremist group United States.