Apple Will Block Spyware Attacks

Apple has announced that it will introduce a new security feature to protect high-risk users from spyware attacks. “Apple is previewing a groundbreaking security capability that offers specialised additional protection to users who may be at risk of highly targeted cyber attacks from private companies developing state-sponsored mercenary spyware,” says an Apple news up-date. 

Lockdown Mode will be available in the autumn with the next operating system across all of the company's iPhones, iPads and Macs which will enable users to significantly reduce some features to protect devices from infection.

Apple says the new feature is an “extreme optional protection” for device owners who are more likely to be targeted by nation states using powerful spyware, like journalists, human rights defenders and political activists.
The setting blocks certain functions and prevents unknown users from calling. It comes after Apple devices owned by activists, politicians and journalists were infected with spyware.

Apple is suing NSO Group an Israeli spyware company accusing it of targeting victims in 150 different countries with its powerful Pegasus spyware.

The firm's software could infect both iPhones and Android devices, allowing operators to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones and cameras. NSO Group says its tools are made to target terrorists and criminals and insists it only supplies Pegasus to military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies from countries with good human rights records.

When the extent of the alleged surveillance was revealed last July, Apple faced criticism from privacy and security experts for not protecting users. It quickly released an emergency software update to all devices to patch up the vulnerability that Pegasus had secretly been using for years.

Apple is releasing Lockdown Mode as a wider security feature it claims can protect devices from all known spyware currently on the market. Lockdown Mode will include the following protections: 

Messages:  Most message attachment types other than images are blocked. Some features, like link previews, are disabled

Web browsing: Certain complex web technologies, like just-in-time JavaScript compilation, are disabled unless the user excludes a trusted site

Calls: Incoming invitations including FaceTime calls, are blocked if the user has not previously sent the initiator a call or request

Wired connections:  With a computer or accessory are blocked when iPhone is locked

At launch, Lockdown Mode will be available to all users in the device settings, but Apple suggests it should only be activated if someone is a risk of what it calls "mercenary spyware attacks", for example a journalist or opposition leader in a repressive regime. 

Apple announced it will double the bounty threshold it pays out to ethical hackers who discover security flaws in Lockdown Mode to $2m (£1.7m).The US firm will also donate $10m to a fund helping organisations expose the misuse of spyware.

Apple:    Reuters:      Bloomberg:     BBC:     Express & Star:    Washington Post:  CNet:   Independent:  

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