A new iOS 18 security feature makes it harder for police to unlock iPhones

There may be an apparently new iOS 18 safety characteristic that reboots iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a couple of days, irritating police by making it tougher to interrupt into suspects’ iPhones, according to 404 Media.

404 Media, which first reported police warnings concerning the reboots on Thursday, writes that restarted iPhones enter a safer “Earlier than First Unlock,” or BFU state. Now, it appears Apple added “inactivity reboot” code in iOS 18.1 that triggers iPhones to restart after they’ve been locked for 4 days, Chris Wade, who based mobile analysis company Corellium, instructed the outlet.

Each iOS and Android gadgets enter this BFU state after they’re restarted, requiring you to enter your passcode (or PIN) to unlock your cellphone, limiting what kind of knowledge forensics specialists can extract, in accordance with a blog post from Dakota State College’s digital forensics lab.

Apple didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark. The corporate has steadily made iPhones tougher to compromise over time, placing it at odds with regulation enforcement and elevating the specter of government regulations requiring encryption backdoors. Apple has repeatedly resisted authorities’ requests to create backdoors, though that hasn’t stopped regulation enforcement from finding its own workarounds.