There’s been a lot of talk lately about Apple’s encryption of iPhones. The tech giants has been at odds with the US government for a while after refusing to unlock iPhones of people under criminal investigation. We know Apple is all about privacy, but State officials think that exceptions to the rule can be made when terrorists and other wrongdoers are concerned. Until they get Apple’s blessing, however, the FBI has created a lab dedicated to unlocking iPhones (and other devices). We talked about the facility yesterday, but today we got a report about one of its successful jobs.

Coming from Bloomberg, the report cites a letter sent to the US District Judge J. Paul Oetken. The letter was sent by US officials to inform the judge that:“First, Parnas declined to provide the password to his devices, which is of course his right, but which required the FBI to spend nearly two months unlocking the iPhone 11, …”

Lev Parnas, the owner of the iPhone, is under investigation for his work with Rudolph Giuliani to dig up dirt on Donald Trump’s political opponent Joe Biden.

This is a good example of how Apple’s cooperation can be beneficial for authorities. Although they did eventually manage to unlock the iPhone, it took two months. These sorts of delays can be critical during ongoing trials, especially if it means that criminals get more time to act at large.

Plus, this 2-month period is not guaranteed. As we learned from the article yesterday, the computers trying to crack open iPhones use algorithms to select which PIN combinations to try. The delay between attempts means they can’t just breeze through all the 999,999 combinations a six-digit code allows for.

On the bright side, regular iPhone users can rest assured that if their phone gets stolen or lost, their data is safe. No one will go through all that trouble just to see pictures of your cats.