this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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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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[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 119 points 6 hours ago (9 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.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 1 points 6 minutes ago

Right!?

Like ohhh. So important to see if someone liked a post. Meanwhile tech espionage and terrorists take over the world.

How dare we 'radicalize' over the idea of free Healthcare.

Absolute sham of 'protection'.

[–] Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 34 points 6 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 3 hours 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 2 points 3 hours 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

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[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 75 points 7 hours ago (11 children)

Best advertisement I've heard for an iPhone ever. Now that Android moving to the same walled garden business model...

[–] Pxtl@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

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

phone screenshot

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 3 points 23 minutes 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.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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 -1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

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

[–] Analog@lemmy.ml 2 points 57 minutes ago (1 children)

That’s… not what they said.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 points 50 minutes ago* (last edited 49 minutes ago) (1 children)

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 2 points 47 minutes ago

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

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 50 points 7 hours ago (6 children)

GrapheneOS is ~10x more private and secure than iOS.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 82 points 7 hours ago (8 children)

I want a phone, not a hobby.

[–] StitchInTime@piefed.social 5 points 1 hour ago

Well well well, look who likes using banking apps and tap-to-pay.

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

Up voting because you made be lol, not because I agree with you. Been on GOS for over a year, it's not that bad. A few apps don't work, it's only slightly inconvenient.

[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

It's not a hobby.

Don't confuse Graphene with a tinker box, or some ROM you once rooted.

It's a professionally polished and very secure fork of Android.

There are some minor limitations with a handful apps that can't pass their Google specific internal security checks, but there's lists of them that you can check to see if any are a deal breaker for you.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Safely using an insecure device swiftly becomes a hobby, unless you give in to the default experience.

I installed GrapheneOS, installed my apps, and I'm done. If I want to deny telemetry or to set up something like the duress password, it's one to two taps.

iPhone users, man... stop drinking the fucking punch.

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[–] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I've used GOS daily for years. Your characterization of the OS as a "hobby" could not be further from the truth. After some basic initial configuration, it simply works like any other phone. My bank app works. Every app they told me would not work, works fine. Honestly, I'm beginning to wonder if all this FUD is a result of personal lack of willingness to do the research or something more nefarious like intentional misinformation.

[–] Winged_Hussar@lemmy.world 2 points 23 minutes ago

I was on GrapheneOS for ~6 months as my daily. I agree that for the most part it "just worked".

However, after the 3rd time RCS messages broke on T-Mobile requiring Google Messages to be reinstalled every 36 hours, I gave up and went back to stock.

If the GrapheneOS devs implement their version of RCS, I'd gladly go back.

[–] Attacker94@lemmy.world 29 points 6 hours ago (8 children)

Discounting some minor comparability issues, the process just requires a computer, an internet connection, a cable, and the ability to read through a couple paragraphs of instruction.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 34 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (5 children)

I'm talking about daily use. I have a good friend, we've both been computer nerds since The Apple II era, we both used to put custom roms on our android phones, we're avid self hosters, etc... He recently switched to Graphene and wants to switch back to something that's less of a pain. His complaints are pretty much the same as reasons I haven't switched. I warned him it would be an adjustment.

[–] napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.org 13 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

As someone who uses GrapheneOS with sandboxed GooglePlay on his only smartphone (with daily usage for years at this point): I don't know what kind of adjustment you are referring to. I never had to adjust to anything, because I never encountered anything that GrapheneOS couldn't do that stock Android could. Follow the installation process and after that the phone behaves like a regular phone, except you have way more options regarding security and privacy.

Is your friend trying to use GrapheneOS without any Google services maybe?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

I had to fiddle with some stuff to get the Google location history and Android Auto working. But if you're using it for privacy-from-Google purposes you probably don't care about those.

Edit: also RCS and tap to pay with credit/debit card. Those require your carrier and Google to allow them, respectively.

[–] Winged_Hussar@lemmy.world 1 points 22 minutes ago* (last edited 22 minutes ago)

Yeah, as an example Tmobile / Mint Mobile regularly stop working and require reprovisioning every 36 hours.

My own personal experience over the past year with it has... Largely not lined up with that? The install process was easy, I do have gplay enabled but rarely use it, favoring fdroid, and it's... Been fine? It's felt mostly like stock android tbh

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[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Here are the instructions to enable and description of how it works. Seems really complete.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/105120

[–] e461h@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

Feature set seems like an improvement, honestly. In particular:

Game Center is also disabled.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 27 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (4 children)

One shortcoming of lockdown mode, as far as I can tell: you can pair your phone and watch so locking your phone will lock your watch as well, but you can’t do the reverse. It seems more likely that a hostile party would get access to your phone first while you still (temporarily) have control of your watch, so being able to lock your phone from your watch would be extremely useful. (Or for that matter, set lockdown mode to trigger automatically if your watch is removed or your watch and phone move to different locations.)

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[–] desmosthenes@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

they’ll just lay israelis (cellbrite) to crack it

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