this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
345 points (99.4% liked)

Technology

80478 readers
3796 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
345
FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled (www.404media.co)
submitted 6 hours ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
80 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Rhoeri@piefed.world 0 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (5 children)

Remember, if it were an android phone, Bezos would have rolled out a welcome mat to it.

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 4 points 36 minutes ago* (last edited 35 minutes ago)

Android also has lockdown mode.

Also Bezos has nothing to do with Android aside from their tablets.

[–] Zetta@mander.xyz 7 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

As another said, a Pixel with Graphene OS is likely the most secure device you can have, even against an Apple product. Cellebrite, the software a lot of companies use to break into these phones can't get into a Pixel device before first unlock with Graphene OS. I believe a number of Apple products are the same thing as they can't be accessed before first unlock or lockdown mode, but your data is more secure in the hands of an open source developer than a massive capitalist company.

Also, a notable feature of GrapheneOS is automatic reboots after no use for any arbitrary time value you want, so your phone will always be in a "before first unlock" state if some steals it like the government. They also have lockdown mode as well, not sure how that works technically on Android beyond disabling biometrics.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 8 points 2 hours ago

not if it was lineage, calyx, graphene.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

No, donkey, no.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Do we know of instances them doing it? Assuming they can, I don't actually know.