FBI stymied by Apple’s Lockdown Mode after seizing journalist’s iPhone

Post reporter was compelled to unlock MacBook Pro with fingerprint, however.

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[nononsense]

“Natanson’s personal MacBook Pro was powered off when it was found by FBI agents.“

“The FBI said an agent “presented Natanson with her open laptop” and “assisted” her in unlocking the device with her finger.”

“The FBI apparently hasn’t gotten any data from Natanson’s personal computer. “Natanson’s personal MacBook Pro is password protected and encrypted”

I’m a little confused here. The cops did not get into her iPhone because it was powered off and you have to enter the password for the first unlock. Ditto with her personal MAC but they did get into her work computer by compelling her to use her finger. I was having trouble figuring out which laptop was which in that paragraph.

Excuse me while I disable biometrics on my MAC. I already do that on my phone but it never occurred to me to do it on my MAC as well.

 

[nononsense]

The FBI assisted Natanson with applying her right index finger to the fingerprint reader which immediately unlocked the laptop.
Considering how DHS and its affiliates have been operating recently, they probably had two of their agents forcibly hold her in a chair while a third grabbed her arm and fingers and pressed the digit to the screen.

Yes, the keyword there is ‘assisted’. If they’d just asked her to use her finger and she did, they would not have had to ‘assist’ her.

 

[nononsense]

I do wonder how the current push for passkeys instead of passwords will be affected by the potential for situations like this

That’s the reason you need to access every device you have with a password to unlock them and not biometrics. Once unlocked, I feel more comfortable using passkeys to access certain sites or apps. And always make sure you lock your device when it’s not in use.