That article was a good read. It seemed to avoid disclosing many "tech" details. One noteworthy discussion concerned how encrypted data at rest was their largest issue. Many of these phones have password protection with mechanical protections against failed attempts. That is different than all the data within the chips being encrypted. A true and actual encrypted "brick" (data at rest) is likely beyond their reach. At least on an actual linux computer with the proper brick software (LUKS, or similar). I don't know why but I just have close to zero confidence in smartphone security where the notion of a brick is considered.