What I personally believe is that the majority of the FBI/CIA/NSA's public statements are composed not for my benefit, but for the benefit of others, to deceive them as to their capabilities. So I really don't trust much of anything they have to say. They're
in the business of lying.
Who in their right mind would believe that the FBI didn't bother to covertly ask around if anyone could help them break into this phone before creating a huge public spectacle over it? If someone has to call up the FBI and say "oh hey did you know we offer this public service that might help you?" before they figure out it's an option, somebody's not doing their job. Federal Bureau of
Investigation needs to learn some
investigation skills maybe? I'm not buying it.
As to the 5C, it was the last Apple iPhone that lacked the Secure Enclave chip, and that's why this process of siphoning off the NAND was as easy as it is. They just sucked all the data off the naked undefended NAND chips and quickly brute-forced the 10,00 combination key. Enter the SE and it's a whole new world of hurt, changing from software obfuscation into actively physically protecting the key. It's certainly still not impossible to do, it just becomes several degrees more difficult. It's still just 10,000 combinations to brute force, but the key is being physically defended against extraction.
