Federal agencies are spending millions to hack into locked phones

A $1.2 million tab for iPhone hacking technology at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement underscores how pervasively law enforcement is cracking into passcodes and other security features Americans use to keep their information private. The ICE contracts — one for $384,000 in Sept and another for $819,000 in May — will go to the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. ICE declined to say how the hacking tools will be used, but the contracts come amid heightened concern about warrantless searches of phones and laptops that ICE and Customs and Border Protection conduct at airports and other points of entry amid an immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump.