Apple has made it more difficult for police to hack an iPhone – iOS 18.1 introduces “Inactivity Reboot”

After the release of iOS 18.1, there were reports that smartphones with the updated operating system were rebooting spontaneously, after which it became more difficult for police officers to unlock them. Although there were no comments from Apple, experts managed to find out the reason for what was happening, as reported by the resource 404 Media.

As it turns out, Apple has added a new security feature to iOS 18.1 called Inactivity Reboot, which forces the iPhone to reboot after a certain period of inactivity, returning it to a heightened state of security, making it more difficult for police to hack the devices.

According to security expert Jiska Classen, the Idle Reboot feature is designed to automatically reboot the iPhone if it hasn’t been unlocked for a certain period of time. In turn, Corellium founder Chris Wade noted that the reboot occurs in four days. That is, if the iPhone is not used for more than four days, it will automatically restart.

For the police, this became an additional problem, since after rebooting the potential criminal’s smartphone is more difficult to unlock.

Matthew Green, a cryptographer and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, told 404 Media: “Remember, the real threat here is not the police. These are the people who will steal your iPhone with evil intentions. This feature means that if your phone is stolen, thieves won’t be able to use it for months until they develop the technology to hack it. I’m willing to bet that rebooting after a reasonable period of inactivity probably isn’t an inconvenience to anyone, but it does make your phone a lot more secure. So it seems like a pretty good idea.”