Apple would have “silently” introduced a new reset code to prevent access to personal information in situations of theft or loss that could make it difficult to unlock iPhones. The police are not happy.
Thanks to a new restart feature, the iPhones have become more difficult to unlock and the police are “freaking out” about it, said last Thursday.
One new reset codeintroduced “silently” by Apple in the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, could make it difficult for thieves to unlock iPhones — but also for authorities.
According to reports from the independent technology newspaper, law enforcement officials were warning each other that cell phones held for forensic analysis appeared to be to reset themselves — something cybersecurity experts have done before.
After reset, it is more difficult to unlock these phones by password cracking tools.
The reset appears to occur on iPhones running iOS 18.1 that have not been jailbroken for a certain period of time.
According to Chris Wade, founder of mobile analytics firm Corellium, iPhones appear to reset themselves after the fourth day of being locked.
Matthew Green, a cryptographer and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, believes this is “a huge improvement in security” that “probably doesn’t bother anyone” — although the police seem to disagree.
Apple, contacted by , did not respond to a request for comment.
