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 5 hours ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
70 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

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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 89 points 4 hours ago (4 children)

This news sparks joy. It’s a shame the FBI is wasting their time on petty political bullshit like this instead of going after real crime. What a shameful chapter for the FBI, and that’s really saying something given their illustrious history.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 hour ago

You act like there's a cabal of kid rapist running the world.

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 23 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

If they had any decency at all they should be arresting the president.

But hell would need to freeze over first. 😡

[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

They did that, twice. Even got a trial and 34 felonies. Repercussions? None. Honestly if you do your job and not only see nothing come of it but said felon has an impact on your job now I can sympathize a bit.

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 1 points 47 minutes ago

He would have been fucked if he had lost the election, and money won the election, money and the markets is the only thing Trump cares about.

Scott Galloway has the right idea

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/02/business/video/national-protests-immigration-trump-administration-lead-jake-tapper

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

It’s really great, isn’t it? But I’d leave you with one theoretical angle to consider…

What if the FBI actually did get into the phone? If so, then why would this information have been made public?

The only reason why, that I can think of right now, is that the FBI wants more people using Lockout. If so, the only reason I can possibly imagine for that is—there are actually some good commonly available techniques to keep them out of your devices, of which Lockout is insufficient. They’d want more people assuming that it is sufficient, and this news could accomplish that.

Purely theoretical… but the bigger point here, whether that framing is strategically true or miraculously over-thinking things, is that something does work. No matter what, you know something works.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 9 minutes ago

You create a great story but violates K.i.S.S.

  • not saying they got in means they can’t use it as evidence. Sometimes there’s still due process
  • even if they can get into lockdown mode, it’s clearly harder than not lockdown. Why conspire to make it harder?
[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 hours ago

I don't think that's a rational line of thinking, because there are documented filings of attempted file access into FOSS programs that the FBI are unable to influence and are completely unable to access, such as Veracrypt/LUKS encrypted PCs and GrapheneOS in BFU/Duress password entry status.

Now, Apple is indeed a proprietary ecosystem, and as such unable to have community outside assurances that their system is completely trustworthy. However, Lockdown has now joined the ranks of other systems of data security that have been proven effective against a warrant, perpetuating the cycle in which nations such as the UK (and the US during the Crypto Wars) have tried to overtly undermine the technology through public actions after failures to covertly crack them. You cannot classify mathematics, physics, or cryptography, and there is no such thing as a perfect backdoor (despite some senators' opinions).

With all that being said, I still wouldn't trust an iPhone, but I don't think that proposed line of thinking meshes with the FBI.

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

It’s not like it was a press release, it was gleaned from a court document. I suppose they could be happy with what info they got off of it enough to let this prosecution fail if they can follow up the chain, but I’m still skeptical. Who knows, maybe they have a functional quantum computer they don’t want to advertise

[–] IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Honestly I don't even believe this stuff anymore. I feel like our government would set up shit just to make it look like they don't have as much control as they really do.

Just a nice little theater act to try to make people think privacy can still be a thing.

[–] Boiglenoight@lemmy.world 12 points 3 hours ago

Always, always default to the simplest answer being the most likely to be true. In context, the government is too incompetent to manage such a thing.