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Comment by mataug | Hacker News Reader

> Overall it's very interesting to see Apple invest so significantly in something that will benefit relatively few users -- not that I'm complaining!

My theory on this is that apple is one of the few companies where everything they build seems to be well integrated into their ecosystem. This is part of their appeal.

Another part of Apple's appeal is that they've positioned themselves to appear as the company that cares the most about consumer privacy and security. Lockdown mode seems to be one of those features that's great for marketing and PR in certain circles, while being extremely useful in situations where it's needed.

I imagine someone writing an article claiming how lockdown mode saved them, and that's practically free viral marketing in the security circles.

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> Lockdown mode seems to be one of those features that's great for marketing and PR in certain circles, while being extremely useful in situations where it's needed.

Also, it gives them additional room to play with security research and engineering at large. They already have an incentive to improve security on device (drive by attacks, jail breaking), and this just enables them to play with things that are safer but break too much. They’re basically training their other tech teams to be more secure, and find where security and UX clash, identify and build the fix, even if off by default.

Also, and of course totally coincidental, it gives them a great justification for blocking other browsers.

Completely coincidental, I am sure.

Absolutely no one vendor can match apple in security, ever.

You gotta admit, they do invest a ton of money into security. Mainly to keep consumers from running their own custom software on their devices. I guess that keeps out attackers too. But do keep in mind the user themself is probably part of Apple's threat model.

I don't care, as long as they make Lockdown Mode secure for my main app.

I'll get an Android phone if I want choices in situations where I don't need them.

Is there some angle for corporate phones too? If you’re a company and you’re going to buy a load of phones and you ask your cybersecurity department, I think they’d probably already tell you that iPhones are more secure. This just adds to it. Perhaps Apple are worried about eg pixel phones reliably getting security updates.

Same for Tesla's Bioweapon Defense Mode. Nearly nobody ever needs it but it gets them some low cost marketing / viral clicks.

Different take… Apple is going to push the idea wider and this is their test audience.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the anti-googled, that is instead of enforcing adoption of a web technology because they own the browser market, stopping all the misused technologies they don’t want to have to explicitly protect for.

Exactly, this is a business move to stop competitive advertising while they sell their own.

> Bioweapon Defense Mode. Nearly nobody ever needs it

Raging wildfires causing smog all over the west coast beg to differ. Having built-in HEPA filtration is fantastic.

"Bioweapon defense mode" is a marketing ploy for "there's a HEPA cabin filter and a recirculation function", both of which a massive number of other cars on the market have both of as well.

You mean false advertising? Because unless is it an actual overpressure system, using compressed and probably stored air, that VX gas is getting in.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7158270/ "In principle, homes could be outfitted with High-Efficiency Particle (HEPA) filters, although this would require substantial modifications to most home heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and would require positive overpressure systems to prevent infiltration through cracks. However, hermetically sealed office buildings frequently have HEPA filters and positive overpressure HVAC systems, making it easier to ‘harden’ such buildings if they are likely targets of attack or if they perform critical functions in the midst of an emergency."

To be fair, it's advertised as a "bioweapon defense mode" and not a "chemical weapon defense mode".

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