That’s right, Apple is rewarding those who manage to find loopholes in its latest security feature, Lockdown Mode. This enticing offer is more or less a bounty reaching a maximum of $2 million USD, a hefty amount to help improve the company’s cybersecurity. Before you get too excited, we’ll explain what this latest feature even does.
Lockdown Mode is an exciting feature that is set to release with iOS 16, iPad OS 16, and macOS Ventura. It’s specially crafted for those who, by the nature of their professions, may be specific targets of cyberhacking and other attacks on their digital life. This may be through the theft of private information leading to blackmail, or just access to top-secret data. Turning on this feature greatly reduces the amount of data that can be stolen, protecting your most valuable secrets.
This mode is believed to be ever-growing as hackers grow more and more creative by the day. As such, the aforementioned bounty is offered to those who find the software’s vulnerabilities and report these to Apple for repair and further strengthening. It’s definitely a great way to debug a program. Amounts of up to an industry-leading $2 million USD may be doled out to those who spot the most critical of loopholes. This goes to show how serious Apple is about this feature.
At launch though, this is what Apple software Lockdown Mode will offer (according to the official Newsroom):
- 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 (JIT) JavaScript compilation, are disabled unless the user excludes a trusted site from Lockdown Mode.
- Apple services: Incoming invitations and service requests, 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.
- Configuration profiles cannot be installed, and the device cannot enroll into mobile device management (MDM), while Lockdown Mode is turned on.
Apart from this Lockdown Mode feature, Apple is doubling down on its efforts to safeguard privacy by making a $10 million USD grant to the Ford Foundation’s Dignity and Justice Fund. The specific goal here is to prevent, expose, and punish cyberattackers by revealing their identities after the fact. This could get the world’s most notorious online criminals in real trouble, especially those who lose their power once they’ve been brought to light in real life.
To put it simply, this fund aims to arm human rights defenders and professionals with the ability to combat spyware and put privacy back into the hands of the common consumer.
