The FBI paid at least $1.3m (£900,000) to hack into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers, it has been estimated.
The figure was calculated based on comments by FBI director James Comey, who said that the agency had paid more to get into the phone than he “will make in the remaining seven years” in his post.
That would make it the largest publicised fee for a hacking job.
Mr Comey added that it was “worth it”.
The calculation was based on a projection of Mr Comey’s annual salary which, in January 2015, was $183,300. This has been multiplied over the next seven years and four months that he remains in his job. The figure does not factor in pay rises or bonuses.
The FBI has never named the security firm or group of hackers that helped unlock the phone, but whoever it was provided either software or hardware that helped crack the four-digit identification number without triggering a security feature that would have erased all data after 10 incorrect guesses.
Mr Comey said that the same method could be used on other 5C iPhones running IOS 9 software.