According to a CNN report, the Federal Investigation Bureau (FBI)’s investigation in the San Bernardino December 2015 terror attack has been helped by the fact that the unlocking of suspected terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone did not reveal any new data.

The report, based on the information shared by unidentified law enforcement officials, has revealed that even though the FBI’s unlocking of Farook’s iPhone 5c handset did not yield any new leads in the investigation, the dearth of new data has actually been of great help to the agency in finding answers to some of the hitherto-unanswered questions about the terror attack.

The officials have told CNN that Farrok’s iPhone did not contain any evidence of a possible contact with ISIS sympathizers, or of encrypted communications having been transferred during a particular time window on the day of the terror attack.

As per the officials, the lack of the mentioned evidence has made the investigators "more confident" about the assumption that the co-conspirators in the terror attack were not contacted by Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik during an 18-minute gap in the FBI's model of events.

The officials said that it would not have been possible for the FBI to put the mentioned assumptions to rest without accessing the data on Farook's iPhone.