In January, the FBI raided the home of Washington Post journalist Hannah Natanson, and seized her laptop and phone as part of its investigation into a government contractor accused of retaining classified information, but a recently filed court record shows that federal agents were unable to access Natanson’s iPhone due to an overlooked Apple feature the reporter had turned on.
This iOS feature, which is available in iOS 16 software or later, is known as Lockdown Mode and has been around since 2022, but this recent case highlights just how strong these cybersecurity protections are.
As reported by tech outlet 404 media, a new court filing on Natanson’s case details how Lockdown Mode blocked the FBI’s go-to forensics analyst team called Computer Analysis Response Team (CART) from accessing her iPhone.
“The iPhone was found powered on and charging, and its display noted that the phone was in ‘Lockdown’ mode,” the court record states. “Because the iPhone was in Lockdown mode, CART could not extract that device.”
Lockdown Mode was originally designed for malware infection prevention, explained David Huerta, senior digital security trainer at Freedom of the Press Foundation. “But the protections there were aggressive enough that it ended up protecting against this also,” he said.
