It’s Black Friday and the official start of the holiday shopping season, and there’s a new iPhone 14 for consumers in the market looking to upgrade their Apple device. From better cameras and longer battery life to faster chips, there are plenty of features consumers will consider when buying a new iPhone — that is, if you can find one amid what’s looking like a season short on supply of some of Cupertino’s newest models.
One new safety feature that has been getting a lot of attention is emergency satellite connectivity. Cybersecurity may not be among the top selling points, but the new iPhone and iOS16 do have some significant security upgrades, too.
The focus on security is nothing new from Apple, which has made user privacy one of its key messages for years, regularly adding new security features within iOS updates and on new phone models, like Face ID facial recognition, app tracking prevention and private browsing.
Improved low-light photo abilities and the extended battery life may have appeal than security upgrades on the new Apple iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max. But from the new satellite connectivity features to Apple’s first-ever eSIM-only phones, the iPhone 14 offers a range of new technologies to further protect your privacy, including the brand new Lockdown Mode.
Lockdown: Apple’s most extreme security mode
All models of the iPhone 14 come preinstalled with iOS 16, which features a new form of protection called Lockdown Mode. This tool enables an extreme level of protection that prevents malware from accessing your phone, blocking most message attachment types, FaceTime calls, and more. While in Lockdown Mode, phone calls, plain text messages and emergency features will continue to work.
You are not expected to use this feature, unless you are, or soon plan to become, a CEO or head of state.
“It’s only meant for a small section of users who might be targeted by a nation-state threat actor,” said Kathleen Moriarty, chief technology officer at the Center for Internet Security. “That being said, it could be a CEO for a company … [an] official in the government, and that ability to lockdown the device and prevent execution or access to data on your phone could be critical.”
But the feature may be enticing to a broader base of security-minded individuals.
Research has found that more than 90% of unknown security bugs live in code that is rarely executed, said Justin Cappos, associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering at New York University Tandon School of Engineering and a member of New York University’s Center for Cybersecurity. Lockdown Mode does remove that risk, while making the phone experience “a little more inconvenient” for most users.
After testing out Lockdown Mode, Cappos said the only visual changes he noticed were fonts appearing differently and the icons for health apps not displaying correctly. And due to a very similar user experience and additional security benefits, he plans to use Lockdown Mode as his default and only exempt apps if necessary.
Android phones have offered a function called “Lockdown” since 2018, when the feature became available on Android 9. Designed to block all biometric security and voice recognition, it operates a bit differently than the Apple feature.
Fingerprint, facial and voice identification disable on the Android in Lockdown to prevent someone from accessing your phone. However, once an Android is unlocked via password, pin or pattern, Lockdown is turned off. While the iPhone keeps your device in Lockdown Mode at all times, the Android only ensures this security if users re-enable the feature every time they unlock their device.
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If this information is helpful to you read our blog for more interesting and useful content, tips, and guidelines on similar topics. Contact the team of COMPUTER 2000 Bulgaria now if you have a specific question. Our specialists will be assisting you with your query.
Content curated by the team of COMPUTER 2000 based on official publications by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, including the Threat Landscape report for 2022. The full text of the report can be found here.
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