The FBI just cracked open Signal texts on an iPhone. Here’s how to lock yours down

How the FBI recovered Signal messages from an iPhone According to a report by 404 Media, the FBI recently managed to recover deleted Signal messages from an iPhone. The method did not involve breaking Signal’s encryption. Instead, investigators retrieved the messages from data stored by iOS itself. To understand how this works, it helps to know how iPhones handle notifications. When message previews are enabled, iOS temporarily stores parts of incoming messages so they can be displayed in the notification preview. That data can persist outside the app, even after the messages are deleted within Signal or the app itself is deleted. In this case, the FBI reportedly extracted those cached notification previews. Only incoming messages were recovered, based on available details, but that still means part of conversations can exist beyond Signal’s encrypted environment. It’s worth noting that this is not a flaw in Signal’s encryption. Messages remain secure in transit and within the app. The issue lies in how iOS handles convenience features like notification previews, which can create a secondary copy of message content. How to stop your iPhone from exposing Signal messages There are two ways to plug this loophole. One involves changing your iPhone’s settings, while the other focuses on Signal itself. The former stops iOS from storing message previews, while the latter limits what the app allows to be shown outside its encrypted environment. If you don’t want iOS to make a copy of message content, you should disable notification previews. To do this, head to Settings > Notifications > Show Previews, and set it to “When Unlocked” or “Never.” The first option ensures message content is only shown in previews when your phone is unlocked, while the second disables previews entirely and is the safer choice.