What is going on with apple?
Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers will now support a new “Lockdown Mode.” It is intended to combat sophisticated hacking and targeted malware, such as the NSO Group’s Pegasus.
Why it is significant
Despite the fact that these assaults affect a limited number of people, the threat is rising. Repressive countries utilized Pegasus to eavesdrop on human rights activists, attorneys, politicians, and journalists. Apple claims to have discovered similar assaults on consumers in 150 countries in the last eight months.
What comes next?
Apple will make Lockdown Mode available for free later this year and has publicly committed to continuous upgrades and enhancements. In addition, the firm has extended its bug bounties and launched a fund to promote more study into this issue.
On Wednesday, Apple revealed a new iPhone feature called Lockdown Mode to safeguard high-profile users like politicians and activists from state-sponsored hackers.
Lockdown Mode disables various iPhone capabilities in order to make it less susceptible to spyware by lowering the number of functionalities that attackers may access and potentially compromise.
It specifically disables many preview features in iMessage, limits JavaScript in the Safari browser, prevents the installation of new configuration profiles, blocks wired connections — thus preventing the device’s data from being copied — and shuts down incoming Apple services requests, including FaceTime.
Researchers who discover a security issue in Lock down Mode will get up to $2 million from Apple.
Lockdown Mode is meant for a small number of persons who believe they are being targeted by a state-sponsored hacker and require an extreme level of security. According to The Washington Post, journalists, human rights campaigners, and corporate leaders have been targeted by military-grade malware. Spyware has also reportedly been used to target governmental authorities, including a French minister and Catalan separatist leaders in Spain.
“While the great majority of customers will never be the victims of highly targeted assaults,” Ivan Krsti, Apple’s head of security engineering and architecture, said in a statement.