If Iranian authorities accessed more than 48 devices – some of the detainees surrendered phones, some computers, and some both – they could amass a significant database of personal information about the journalists and their networks. Because security forces are known to deliberately intimidate witnesses to stop details of the detentions getting out, the number of device seizures is likely much higher. Her experience is consistent with accounts from other Iranians who have been released from state custody, and concerning in light of the wave of detentions that propelled Iran to the position of the world’s worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s 2022 prison census. “My only worry was that I didn’t want any of my friends and family get in trouble…I kept whispering to myself, ‘I wish I never saved any phone numbers.’” “There was nothing problematic or legally forbidden among ,” Yeganeh said. Jason was sentenced to an unspecified prison term in 2015 on espionage charges, and released in 2016. She was detained for a total of 72 days and charged with assisting a spy, but never tried. Yeganeh was forced to sign hundreds of pages of printouts of her personal communications, a safeguard, she believes, in case she later claimed that evidence compiled against her was falsified or extracted under duress. Forensic analysis conducted later showed that the Rezaians’ computer files were copied using Disk Drill, a kind of file recovery software for phones and computers developed in the U.S. In 2014, Iranian authorities arrested Yeganeh and her husband, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, and seized their iPhones and laptops. More than half - at least 48 - had their devices seized, according to news accounts and interviews with sources inside the country.ĬPJ senior researcher Yeganeh Rezaian knows firsthand what happens when Iranian officials gain access to personal devices.

CPJ counted at least 95 journalists arrested since the start of the protests.

In many of these cases, authorities have powerful tools at their disposal to aid in convictions: journalists’ phones and laptops. Five months after the death of a young woman in morality police custody sparked widespread protests, Iranian authorities are charging journalists who covered the uprising with anti-state crimes.

Crack wise data recovery