FBI reportedly paid at least $1 million to hack into San Bernardino shooter's phone

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

last updated 22 April 2016

At a security conference in London on Thursday, FBI Director James B. Comey said the bureau "paid a lot" to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, "but it was worth it."

Comey did not share the exact cost, just that it was more than what he will make in the remaining seven years of his 10-year contract as director, the Los Angeles Times reports. Comey earns a yearly salary of $183,000. The FBI has not revealed the name of the third party it hired to help them hack into the phone, and a law enforcement official has said the FBI did not make any major discoveries on the device.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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