A regional department of the Russian police wants to buy equipment which would enable it to hack iPhones and other Apple products. It is offering $37,000 to whoever can deliver such items.
A request for tenders of “a forensic complex for studying Apple devices with a video analysis module” was placed on a local budget procurement website. However, potential suppliers need not rush with bids now, as the tender period has already expired. The results are to be published in mid-December.
The police from the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals who placed the offer explained that they need the equipment to hack into iPhone devices in their forensic lab.
“If Apple products were to be used to commit crime, this equipment would help experts to search such a device for information pertaining to a criminal investigation,” police spokesperson Nina Pelevina told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
READ: Russian Interior Ministry offers $111k to crack TOR network
The police wouldn’t explain why they singled out Apple products among all mobile devices, but the US tech giant should probably take it as a compliment to its data protection solutions.
Earlier, the Russian Interior Ministry placed another request for hacking tools, offering some $111,000 for a technique allowing it to beat the encryption of the Tor anonymizer network.