Apple Announces 'Lockdown Mode' to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Workers From Spyware
Turning on Lockdown Mode will harden device defenses and strictly limit certain functionalities
Journalists may handle sensitive sources, investigate cyber incidents, and face risks involving surveillance, phishing, and data exposure.
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Background for this topic.
Journalists gather, verify, and publish information, often handling unpublished documents, confidential source identities, and sensitive communications. Their security relevance is concentrated in protecting source confidentiality, editorial materials, accounts, and personal safety from targeted phishing, account takeover, device compromise, surveillance, or theft of stored data.
Useful controls include phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, prompt patching, encrypted communications and storage, strong separation between personal and reporting accounts, and careful handling of identifying metadata such as file histories and location data. Security planning should also cover source verification, secure transfer and deletion procedures, device and travel risks, and a response plan to revoke sessions, preserve evidence, assess exposed sources, and communicate through trusted channels after a suspected compromise.
Turning on Lockdown Mode will harden device defenses and strictly limit certain functionalities
Apple announced that a new security feature known as Lockdown Mode will roll out with iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura to protect high-risk individuals like human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents against targeted spyware attacks. [...]