Apple Says No iPhone in Lockdown Mode Has Ever Been Hacked

Apple says it has nary grounds of a palmy spyware onslaught against immoderate instrumentality moving Lockdown Mode, the opt-in information diagnostic it introduced successful 2022.


"We are not alert of immoderate palmy mercenary spyware attacks against a Lockdown Mode-enabled Apple device," an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Lockdown Mode is disposable connected the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and dramatically restricts definite strategy features that are commonly exploited by mercenary spyware. When enabled, it blocks astir connection attachment types, disables definite analyzable web technologies, and prevents devices from automatically joining non-secure Wi-Fi networks, among different restrictions. Apple designed the diagnostic specifically to support high-risk users specified arsenic journalists, activists, lawyers, and others who whitethorn beryllium personally targeted by blase nation-state-level attacks.

• Enable Lockdown Mode connected iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, caput of the information laboratory astatine Amnesty International, said helium and his colleagues "have not seen immoderate grounds of an iPhone being successfully compromised by mercenary spyware wherever Lockdown Mode was enabled astatine the clip of the attack." Digital rights organizations including Amnesty International and the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab person documented galore palmy spyware attacks connected iPhone users implicit the years, but nary person progressive a bypass of Lockdown Mode.

Citizen Lab researchers person confirmed astatine slightest 2 cases wherever Lockdown Mode actively blocked spyware attacks, with 1 involving NSO Group's Pegasus and different involving Predator spyware, made by a institution present portion of Intellexa. Google researchers recovered that spyware was coded to abort its corruption effort if it detected Lockdown Mode was active, seemingly to debar leaving traces that could exposure the attack.

Patrick Wardle, an Apple cybersecurity expert, told TechCrunch, "I deliberation it's harmless to say, Lockdown Mode is 1 of the astir assertive consumer-facing hardening features ever shipped."
This article, "Apple Says No iPhone successful Lockdown Mode Has Ever Been Hacked" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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