Access to iPhones to be restricted

Apple is beta-testing a security feature that would hinder law-enforcement access to data from iPhones, but Apple says its USB Restricted Mode feature is designed to protect its devices from all potential intruders. The new software feature stops other devices, such as computers, from accessing iPhone data via its Lightning port an hour after the phone was last unlocked. “We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don’t design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs,” Apple said Wednesday in a statement. The Wall Street Journal described the development as the “latest twist in [Apple’s] long-running standoff with law-enforcement agencies over user privacy.”