As the public's concern about privacy in the electronic space grows, smartphone manufacturers introduce new features that protect it every year. Apps are becoming more difficult to access private information, passwords and other sensitive data are made virtually inaccessible to attackers thanks to encryption, and targeted ad blocking features are forcing app developers to find new ways to reach their audience. But last week, Apple took another step forward - it introduced a special "Lockdown" (lit. isolation) mode that will prevent owners of iPhones and other devices from this company from spying on countries' governments.
Last year, the world was shaken by information released by independent researchers about the Pegasus malicious software developed in Israel, which was used by the secret services of various countries to track not only criminals, but also journalists, human rights activists, businessmen and even high-ranking politicians. The investigation revealed that about 50,000 people could have been affected by Pegasus. individuals that included the Prime Minister of Spain and even the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
"In recent years, Apple has not shied away from actively emphasizing that iPhones are the most secure smartphones in the world, so the news that third parties were able to gain full access to them without any active user action must have been a severe blow to the company. It is not surprising that they did not forget this and took steps to restore the title of the most secure to their devices," says Telia's Smart Devices Sales Manager Simon Tilindis.
An unprecedented move
According to S. Tilindis, the "Lockdown" mode is special in that when introducing it, Apple, in a certain sense, entered into an open fight with something that was never considered an enemy. In the technology market, it used to be considered good manners to protect users from fraudulent emails, intrusive advertisements, or hackers selling data on the black market, but governments, which should theoretically protect the public interest, have always been considered a red line that the absolute majority of market players were afraid to cross.
However, in 2015, Apple surprised the world by rejecting the request of the US Internal Intelligence and Security Service to unlock the iPhone of a person suspected of terrorism and the murder of a dozen people. The company thus demonstrated that it considers the human right to privacy as the highest value, and the authority it has allowed this value policy to continue and, with the help of the "Lockdown" function, to tie the hands of governments even more.
"This does not mean that Apple encourages terrorism or wants to help criminals avoid legal punishment." The company is simply trying to prevent illegal espionage, where a smartphone is used to stalk opposition figures or influential people who are not in favor of the regime. With this, the manufacturer aims to make every owner of his devices feel safer. Although this will potentially complicate the investigation of some crimes, the company is trying to shape the practice in this way, when governments choose other ways to prove crimes", explains S. Tilindis.
Effective, but not for everyone
Apple emphasizes that the Lockdown mode is only relevant to a very small number of users, because governments have the capacity to track only the special and most dangerous individuals. Moreover, this innovation itself is not a magic button that disables spying. It's a more carefully thought-out restriction system that automatically closes the most popular entry points for malware, but at the cost of giving up a significant portion of the device's usability.
"If you activate Lockdown mode in your device's privacy settings, messaging apps will no longer be able to receive any attachments except images. The user will no longer receive FaceTime calls or other initiating invitations to perform a specific action on other Apple services unless initiated by the user. Also, it will no longer be possible to connect any accessories to the device by cable or to start charging while it is locked, and the browsing of certain web pages will be severely restricted", S. Tilindis mentions the features of the "Lockdown" mode.
However, Apple does not intend to limit itself to the creation of this mode. The company announced that it will allocate 10 mln. $100,000 in grants to organizations that investigate, publicize, and combat targeted cyber attacks, including those carried out at the behest of governments. In addition, the company intends to pay up to 2 million to those who managed to find loopholes in the Lockdown regime and thereby contributed to its improvement. USD award.
Lockdown mode will debut in new versions of Apple's device operating systems coming out this fall - iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura.
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