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Apple to release new 'Lockdown Mode' as it battles spyware firms
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Not ‘pandemic’ mode: A pair of new Apple iPhone SE handsets are on display on March 18, shortly after it went on sale at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York. Apple has announced it is launching the new Lockdown Mode in fall 2022 to enhance user protection from sophisticated spyware. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
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pple Inc. said on Wednesday it planned to release a new feature called Lockdown Mode this fall that aimed to add a new layer of protection for human rights advocates, political dissidents and other targets of sophisticated hacking attacks.
The move comes after at least two Israeli firms have exploited flaws in Apple's software to remotely break into iPhones without the target needing to click or tap anything. NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus software that can carry out such attacks, has been sued by Apple and placed on a trade blacklist by United States officials.
Lockdown Mode will come to Apple's iPhones, iPads and Macs this fall, and turning it on will block most attachments sent to the iPhone's Messages app. Security researchers believe NSO Group exploited a flaw in how Apple handled message attachments.
The new mode will also block wired connections to iPhones when they are locked. Israeli firm Cellebrite has used such manual connections to access iPhones.
Apple representatives said they believed the sophisticated attacks the new feature was designed to fight, called "zero click" hacking techniques, were still relatively rare and that most users would not need to activate the new mode.
Spyware companies have argued that they sell high-powered technology to help governments thwart national security threats. But human rights groups and journalists have repeatedly documented the use of spyware to attack civil society, undermine political opposition and interfere with elections.
To help harden the new feature, Apple said it would pay up to US$2 million for each flaw that security researchers could find in the new mode, which Apple representatives said was the highest "bug bounty" offered in the industry.
Apple also said it was making a $10 million grant, plus any possible proceeds from its lawsuit against NSO Group, to groups that find, expose and work to prevent targeted hacking. Apple said the grant would go to the Dignity and Justice Fund established by the Ford Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States.
