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Meet The iPhone Dream Team Hackers: FBI, Japanese Pinball Machine Maker, Israeli Cybersecurity Firm

Steve Morgan
Former Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
I write about the business of cybersecurity.
This article is more than 8 years old.

The San Bernardino iPhone has been unlocked by an unlikely team of hackers from the FBI, a Japanese manufacturing company, and an Israeli cybersecurity software firm.

In an interview yesterday, cybersecurity expert John McAfee revealed that the FBI used a device - the UFED Touch - to hack into Syed Farook's iPhone.

Given Apple's claim that iPhones are nearly unhackable, it took a dream team to pull off the iPhone hack. The players:

FBI

The FBI gave Apple and the whole world a head-fake which led us to believe the only way they could break into an iPhone was with Apple's help. The FBI knew all along how to hack the iPhone, according to McAfee. James Comey -- Director of the FBI -- is 6 feet, 8 inches tall and he used to play a lot of basketball. Comey gets credit for a move that left his defenders stumbling.

Sun Corp.

Sun Corp. is best known as a Japanese maker of pinball machines including the popular Pachinko gambling machine. In 2007, Sun Corp. purchased Cellebrite - an Israeli mobile cybersecurity firm. After the purchase, Sun Corp.'s mobile data business got into the digital forensics field. Masanori Yamaguchi is the 79 year old chairman of Cellebrite and CEO of Sun Corp. USA, Inc.

Cellebrite

Cellebrite grew under Sun Corp.'s ownership and they signed on clients which included the FBI. McAfee says the FBI signed a sole source contract with Cellebrite in the summer of 2013. Ron Serber is Cellebrite's co-CEO. He joined the company in 2001 as CTO -- and he currently heads up all of Cellebrite's technology development.

Each of the team members stands to gain a lot from the iPhone hack.

The FBI gets some serious cybersecurity street cred for hacking what was widely believed to be unhackable.

Sun Corp.'s shares were up more than 40% as of yesterday -- since the FBI hacked into the San Bernardino iPhone, according to BloombergTechnology.

Cellebrite can celebrate a huge PR victory. The company will undoubtedly be in the news every day for providing the technology used by the FBI to hack into the San Bernardino iPhone.

Visit SteveOnCyber.com to read all of my blogs and articles covering cybersecurity.

Follow me on Twitter @CybersecuritySF or connect with me on LinkedIn. Send story tips, feedback, and suggestions to me here.

Steve Morgan
Steve Morgan