Item — HN Reader

What it means is that the best the FBI can come up with is "Make a way for us to brute force attack the passphrase." And brute force attack is worthless for a strong enough passphrase. That's what is reassuring.

Not to mention that this is for the iPhone 5c. As other comments have mentioned, newer iPhones have the hardware-based Secure Enclave which add to the difficulty of breaking into the phone. https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

2 comments

My reading of that PDF is that Secure Enclave software can be updated too, it simply does an independent verification of the Apple's digital signature.

So while the Secure Enclave enforces the delay between brute force attempts, Apple could still release an update that removes that delay.

It could also be that the FBI has already obtained the info, or can obtain the info through illegal means and simply want to use the issue to force legislative and policy changes or public opinion changes in their favor, and or just want to legitimize their having the information.