Lockdown Mode is a sometimes overlooked feature of Apple devices that broadly make them harder to hack. A court record indicates the feature might be effective at stopping third parties unlocking someone's device. At least for now.

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.

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  • napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.orgEnglish
    41·
    14 hours ago

    But if you’re using it for privacy-from-Google purposes you probably don’t care about those.

    Correct, I am not using GrapheneOS to then give my data to Google willingly. Kinda defeats the purpose I would say. It is the right thing that this is blocked by default and you have to actively turn it on.

    also RCS

    Is this a country-specific topic? I don’t know a single person who still uses SMS/MMS to communicate. Everybody here uses WhatsApp or Signal.

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
      0·
      8 hours ago

      I am not using GrapheneOS to then give my data to Google willingly

      No one enables it to “give Google data”, they use it to get apps to work that use it as a dependency.

      I don’t know anybody who still uses SMS/MMS to communicate.

      RCS is neither.

      • napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.orgEnglish
        0·
        5 hours ago

        No one enables it to “give Google data”, they use it to get apps to work that use it as a dependency.

        Well yes of course, but you are still giving away your data, regardless of intention. And a privacy feature of GrapheneOS is that it redirects location data requests to the OS by default. Thats why you have to disable it in the settings if you want Google to have this data.

        RCS is neither.

        AFAIK it is specifically meant as a replacement for SMS and is used with regular pre-installed SMS Apps.

        • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
          0·
          5 hours ago

          AFAIK it is specifically meant as a replacement for SMS

          Nope

          and is used with regular pre-installed SMS Apps.

          Only works with 3 proprietary apps, that I’m aware of. Google and Samsung Messages and iMessage.