Apple Might Have Introduced A Feature To Help To Keep Law Enforcement Out Of Your Phone

TechCrunch is reporting that law enforcement is apparently concerned over a new feature that Apple seems to have added that makes it way harder for them to get into iPhones that are in their possession:

404 Media reported Thursday that law enforcement officials were warning each other that phones being stored for forensic examination seemed to be rebooting themselves — something that security experts confirmed in a follow-up story. After the reboot, it’s harder for those phones to be unlocked by password-cracking tools.

Apple did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

This reboot appears to take place after iPhones with iOS 18.1 have not been unlocked for a set period of time. According to Chris Wade, founder of mobile analysis company Corellium, iPhones seem to reboot after their fourth day of in a locked state.

So if you’re running iOS 18.1 right now, you have this feature. Now, am I surprised that Apple not only hasn’t commented on this, but also has seemingly slipped this feature in under the cover of darkness? Not really. Apple has had a bit of a history getting into fights with law enforcement over unlocking iPhones. And given the current climate in the US where there is a massive potential for the surveillance state to really ramp up, some people might consider this a feature. I for one am fine with this because the data on my iPhone is my data. And nobody that I don’t want to have access to it should have access to it. That doesn’t make me a criminal. It makes me someone who wants their privacy to remain intact.

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