The Cupertino giant Apple has recently announced a new Lockdown Mode for its iOS, iPadOS, and macOS system for an enhanced security environment. It basically aims to protect user privacy from spyware services or attacks like Pegasus, etc. This new security feature will arrive on iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and upcoming macOS Ventura out of the box.
The new Lockdown Mode will offer privacy protections for iMessage, web browsing, wired connections, profile configurations, other Apple services like FaceTime, and more. Once the user enables it on the device, the feature will start blocking most of the unverified and suspicious hyperlinks, attachment files (excluding images), etc straightaway.
When it comes to the web browsing task, it’ll also block some of the complex web technologies by default like JIT (just-in-time) JavaScript compilation. But you can whitelist your trusted websites manually which is a good thing. As mentioned above, the feature will also block all wired connections with the PC or any kind of external device once the iPhone screen is locked.
It’ll also protect incoming invitations and service requests on Apple services like FaceTime call whenever required. Meanwhile, you can’t install profile configurations or enroll in the mobile device management (MDM) when the Lockdown Mode is enabled. According to Apple, the ‘Lockdown Mode’ offers an extreme level of security layers and optimizations for privacy-centric users to get minimal security threats or deal with spyware services.
In respective to Lockdown Mode, Apple has also announced a new security bounty program for hackers or researchers with up to $2,000,000 rewards who can manage to bypass the Lockdown Mode security layer. This basically helps Apple to get more ideas and work on better security threat protection. Apple did invite hackers or researchers to deal with their security systems previously and reward them to find out loopholes.
