The Federal Bureau of Investigation is facing challenges in accessing data from a Washington Post reporter’s iPhone due to the device being protected by Apple’s Lockdown Mode, as revealed in a court filing by the US government.
While FBI agents successfully accessed the reporter’s work laptop during a search on January 14 by asking her to use her fingerprint on the MacBook Pro’s reader, they have been unable to bypass the security measures on the iPhone. The search took place at the Virginia residence of reporter Hannah Natanson.
The search warrant execution at Natanson’s home was part of an inquiry into a Pentagon contractor suspected of unauthorized leakage of classified information. Among the seized items were an iPhone 13 and a MacBook Pro belonging to the Post, Natanson’s personal MacBook Pro, a 1TB portable hard drive, a voice recorder, and a Garmin watch.
Government investigators are specifically interested in reading Natanson’s Signal messages; they managed to view some on her work laptop. Natanson reportedly maintains a Signal contact list comprising 1,100 current and former government employees for encrypted communications.
The details of the search were included in a filing by the Justice Department submitted on Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, highlighted in a 404 Media article. The filing is in opposition to a motion by the Post and Natanson requesting the return of the seized devices. A federal magistrate judge had previously issued a standstill order halting government searches of the devices pending court decisions on their return.
“The iPhone was found powered on and charging, and its display noted that the phone was in ‘Lockdown’ mode,” stated the government filing. Post-seizure, the devices were taken to the FBI’s Washington field office where the Computer Analysis Response Team (CART) started processing them to secure the information contained within, according to the filing.