this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled (www.404media.co)
submitted 13 hours ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter’s seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records.

The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides rare insight into the apparent effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, or at least how effective it might be before the FBI may try other techniques to access the device.

“Because the iPhone was in Lockdown mode, CART could not extract that device,” the court record reads, referring to the FBI’s Computer Analysis Response Team, a unit focused on performing forensic analyses of seized devices. The document is written by the government, and is opposing the return of Natanson’s devices.

Archive: http://archive.today/gfTg9

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[–] kinkles@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

My friend tried using it last year and he started getting some super annoying RCS issues that caused him to switch back to iPhone. He was very invested in using graphene but it became too much.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I don't mean to sound callous but if some relatively minor RCS issues, and there's really no way they could be classified as major, stopped your friend from doing what he set out to do then he wasn't all that invested in the idea.

I'm not saying there's no problems with GrapheneOS or any other product helping consumers to change their habits but if you really care about issues like corporate overreach then a little inconvenience isn't a deal breaker. In fact, it's to be expected when switching away from mega corporations. They invest tons of money to make their user experience decent so that they can profit off of your data. If you want to get away from that you have to accept the fact that you're moving away from a product supported by thousands of engineers with billions of dollars to spend towards a product developed by tens of engineers or less with very limited funding. Those developers do a damn good job IMO but a dip in ease-of-use has to be expected.

At the end of the day we all have to decide if we're going to prioritize convenience or mindfulness. It sounds like your friend made his choice, and there's nothing inherently wrong with the choice he made, I just think it's important to put it in the proper perspective.

[–] kinkles@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

He was between jobs and could not afford his phone to be unreliable at the time. The RCS issues were messing with all of his group chats, family communications, and more. For him in his situation, it was not minor.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Clearly not that invested because you can just turn RCS off, or use a non-RCS messaging app

[–] kinkles@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

He might have had other problems too, I don’t really remember. I just know he was talking about using Graphene for months leading up to him finally getting it and then soon after having issues. And circumstances came up that caused him to unexpectedly be between jobs so rather than stick with a finicky phone that could hamper his employment search he went back to his iPhone. I don’t know all the details, but that’s roughly what happened.