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Science & Tech.
Mahesh

01/11/23 12:54 PM IST

Apple threat notifications

In News
  • Opposition leaders were among Indians who received emails and messages  from Apple warning them that state-sponsored attackers were potentially trying to compromise their iPhones
State sponsored attackers
  • Apple states these notifications may be based on information which is ‘incomplete or imperfect’.
  • It also states that some Apple threat notifications maybe false alarms or some attacks are not detected.
  • Apple has also claimed that Apple IDs are securely encrypted on devices, making it extremely difficult to access or identify them without the user’s explicit permission.
  • This encryption safeguards the user’s Apple ID and ensures that it remains private and protected.
  • Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.
  • These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do.
  • If your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone.
What Apple says about such threat notifications?
  • According to Apple, the threat notifications are designed to “inform and assist” users who may have been targeted by state-sponsored attackers.
  • “If Apple discovers activity consistent with a state-sponsored attack, we will notify the targeted users in two ways: A Threat Notification will be displayed at the top of the page after the user has signed in to appleid.apple.com.
  • Apple will send an email and iMessage notification to the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple ID.
  • These notifications will provide additional steps that notified users can take to help protect their devices, including enabling Lockdown Mode
  • According to the company, detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete, and it is possible that some threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected.
  • It said that it cannot provide information about what leads to such threat notifications being issued, as it could help “state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future”.
  • State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time.
Lockdown mode
  • Apple released its Lockdown Mode in September 2022 with iOS 16, iPadOS 16, MacOS Ventura, and watchOS 10 in response to state actors compromising the devices of critics or whom they perceived as threats.
  • This mode enables multiple apps and features to function differently to reduce the attack surface that can potentially be exploited using “highly targeted mercenary spyware”.
  • For instance, most message attachment types will be blocked.
  • Certain web technologies will be blocked, hindering websites from loading correctly or at all. FaceTime calls from new devices too will be blocked.
Source- Indian Express

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