The FBI's announcement that it mysteriously hacked into an iPhone is a public setback for Apple, as consumers suddenly discover they can't keep their most personal information safe.
Meanwhile, Apple remains in the dark about how to restore the security of its flagship product.
The US government said it was able to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in a mass shooting in California, but it didn't say how. That puzzled Apple software engineers - and outside experts - about how the FBI broke the digital locks on the phone without Apple's help. It also complicated Apple's job repairing flaws that jeopardise its software.
The Justice Department's announcement that it was dropping a legal fight to compel Apple to help it access the phone also took away any obvious legal avenues Apple might have used to learn how the FBI did it.
The Justice Department declined through a spokeswoman to comment on Tuesday.
A few clues have emerged. A senior law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the FBI managed to defeat an Apple security feature that threatened to delete the phone's contents if the FBI failed to enter the correct passcode combination after 10 tries. That allowed the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what's known as a brute-force attack until the right code is entered and the phone is unlocked.
It wasn't clear how the FBI dealt with a related Apple security feature that introduces increasing time delays between guesses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
FBI director James Comey has said with those features removed, the FBI could break into the phone in 26 minutes.
The FBI hacked into the iPhone used by gunman Syed Rizwan Farook, who died with his wife Tashfeen Malik in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in December in San Bernardino.
The iPhone, issued to Farook by his employer, the county health department, was found in a vehicle the day after the shooting.
The FBI is reviewing information from the iPhone, and it is unclear whether anything useful can be found.
Apple said in a statement on Monday that the legal case to force its co-operation "should never have been brought", and it promised to increase the security of its products.
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