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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.

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[-] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 days ago

Android phones have lockdown mode too. Hold the power button to show the shutdown menu and click lockdown.

phone screenshot

[-] BanMe@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago

They're not the same. Android lockdown is a temporary lock screen state. iOS lockdown is a full OS hardening, affects the way the phone operates full-time.

[-] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Ah, my bad. I looked it up and while Android does have an analog to what iOS calls "lockdown", Android uses different terminology for it, since "Lockdown" is, as you said, lock the lockscreen to be password/pin-only (which would still be a reasonable approach before being forced to turn over your phone to somebody since those are things that are harder to be compelled to provide).

Android's version of iOS "Lockdown" is called "Advanced Protection Mode".

[-] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

joke on you! google's recent requirement is that all phone vendors make the power button open an AI menu instead of the shutdown menu! on most phones it can be fixed, but it's often hidden very deep in the settings.

[-] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'd forgotten because the first thing I did when that rolled out was revert it so long-press on the power button was the power menu. IIRC the new default is like long-press-power-and-volume-down or some garbage like that to show the power menu.

[-] Lyubo@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

AI will take as to the future shit 🤣 You: Hey Google (or the hell the new assistant names are), I'm beening arrested could you lock donw my phone!" The bot: Sorry, I couldn't get that. connecting to the ChatGPT/ Gemini servers

[-] roofuskit@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Having it and it working as well are two different things. historically Apple has been ahead in security that can slow down or stop law enforcement. And before before you jump to the same conclusions as someone else, I never have owned an iPhone, nor wanted to.

[-] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 days ago

That's incorrect. Google's Android has several industry leading security features the iPhone doesn't support.

[-] Analog@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 days ago

That’s… not what they said.

[-] roofuskit@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

There's a lot of copium in this thread. Joke is I've been pretty hardcore Android since day one, I have never owned an iPhone. I am just capable of some level of objectivity. Shit, there's podcasts out there from early in the Android v iOS days where I was the token Android guy defending it as the IBM compatible equivalent of its day. Telling these hard core iPhone guys that Apple would lose the market share fight worldwide because of the closed nature, the same way they lost it on the desktop. But yeah, there's people here denouncing me as an Apple fanboy because I was capable of complimenting a strength it has.

[-] Analog@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 days ago

Keep doing it. They all have strengths and suckiness at the same time.

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

This is more of "disable face ID" type of thing rather than "lockdown"

this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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