FBI Director James Comey said the FBI is exploring how to make broader use of the hack, used to access a San Bernardino terrorist's encrypted iPhone, while bracing for a larger battle involving encrypted text messages, e-mails and other data.
The tool could "in theory be used in any case where there's a court order" to access data on an iPhone 5c running Apple's iOS 9 OS, Comey told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
However, accessing content on a phone, known as "data at rest," is only part of the challenge that encryption poses for U.S. investigators.
Software applications and other services that encrypts texts, e-mails and other information in transit over the Internet, known as "data in motion," are "hugely significant," especially for national security investigations, Comey said.
He said criminals are increasingly using services that encrypt data in motion, and he didn't rule out litigation against companies such as WhatsApp.
"WhatsApp has over a billion customers, overwhelmingly good people," Comey said.
"But in that billion customers are terrorists and criminals, and so that now ubiquitous feature of all WhatsApp products will affect both sides of the house."
As for whether or not there will be litigation against WhatsApp down the road, Comey says, "I don't know."
The FBI is trying to figure out how to allow "law enforcement around the country with court orders to be able to use our tool," Comey said.
It's "tricky," he said, because using the tool to help state and local criminal investigations could mean that it would have to be revealed in a court preceding if there isn't a procedure in place to prohibit testimony about how it works.
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