The company promises to pay two million dollars to specialists who find a vulnerability in the program.
Apple introduced the Lockdown Mode function, which is intended to protect the smartphones of politicians and public activists from state-sponsored hacking attacks. According to CNBC, this mode disables several functions on the iPhone, making it less vulnerable to hacker attacks.
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In particular, it disables many preview features in iMessage, restricts JavaScript in the Safari browser, prevents the installation of new configuration profiles, blocks wired connections, itself, preventing the copying of device data, and disables incoming requests from Apple services, including FaceTime.
Apple promises to pay two million dollars to experts who can find a vulnerability in Lockdown Mode.
The new feature comes months after it emerged that state-sponsored hackers could compromise the latest iPhone models using “zero-click” attacks spread via text messages. These attacks can be successful even if the victim does not click on the link.
The iPhone maker is facing growing calls from governments to address the issue. In March, U.S. lawmakers demanded details from Apple about the attacks, including whether it could detect them, how many were detected, and when and where they occurred.
The goal of most hacker attacks is to get financial benefit. Most often, they are aimed at obtaining a password from a device and other valuable information or access to financial instruments.
But state-sponsored hackers pursue other goals. They use expensive tools to hack into the iPhone's operating system and then control the camera and microphone, as well as steal browsing history and messages.
Lockdown Mode is intended for a limited number of users who believe they may be attacked by state-sponsored hackers and require an extreme level of protection. They include journalists, human rights defenders and business executives.
Recall that scientists from the Technical University of Darmstadt have developed a program that is capable of attacking iOS devices even if they are turned off. This is possible due to the fact that some applications run in the background even when the devices are turned off.
