New iPhone Feature May Hinder Police Unlocking

A new iPhone reboot feature could make it more challenging for law enforcement to unlock devices, enhancing user privacy

The most recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system includes a new code that may make it more difficult for criminals and law enforcement to unlock iPhones.

In a follow-up story, security specialists confirmed that law enforcement officers were alerting one another to the fact that phones being held for forensic analysis appeared to be restarting themselves, as reported by 404 Media on Thursday.

It is more difficult for password-cracking software to unlock those phones after a reboot.

A request for comment from TechCrunch was not immediately answered by Apple.

This reboot seems to occur when iOS 18.1 iPhones have been locked for a predetermined amount of time. Chris Wade, the founder of Corellium, a mobile intelligence firm, claims that after four days of being locked, iPhones appear to reboot.

Although the police may not agree, Matthew Green, a cryptographer and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, called this “a huge improvement in terms of security” that “probably doesn’t inconvenience anyone.”