Welcome to “Ask a security trainer,” the column where the digital security training team at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) answers your burning questions at the intersection of journalism and security. Submit yours here! Let’s jump right into this week’s question.

Dear DST,

During your training, you mentioned Apple’s Lockdown Mode feature, which sounds like it disables some functionality to boost your security. I was curious, and I looked into it a bit.

The language on Apple’s website sounds kind of intense! They called it an “extreme protection that’s designed for the very few individuals who, because of who they are or what they do, might be personally targeted by some of the most sophisticated digital threats.” They add, “Most people are never targeted by attacks of this nature.”

They make it sound like this would be most useful to a very rare group of people. Do you still recommend it?

Signed,

Over/Under

Hi Over/Under,

I read this language from Apple in the opposite way: They’re saying, because of what you do, you may need Lockdown Mode. These features are made for at-risk individuals, which certainly includes journalists.

However, you will lose some minor functionality to harden your device, such as disabling USB connections without permission and blocking certain types of message attachments known to be used in advanced exploits. Because everyone’s risk assessment is different, you’ll have to decide if this is right for you.

But we do think it’s worth trying out Lockdown Mode (or the Android equivalent, Advanced Protection) so you can choose for yourself. They are fairly easy to use, and you may appreciate some peace of mind knowing your device is that much harder to hack. If it turns out you don’t like it, you can always disable it later.

Let’s talk about the trade-offs.

The benefit is straightforward. We have seen Lockdown Mode in action, shutting down mercenary spyware, and even preventing forensic analysis devices from being used on a Washington Post reporter’s phone during a raid of her home in early 2026. Apple goes as far as to say that, to its knowledge, no one using the feature has been hacked. By disabling just a bit of functionality in your Apple devices, it’s made an attacker’s job much, much harder.

I personally love Lockdown Mode and use it every day on both my iPhone and MacBook. I don’t notice any meaningful difference on my laptop at all — except now, when I connect a USB device, it asks me on my unlocked laptop to verify that I want to use this USB device. No problem.

But in my experience, while most apps on my phone work perfectly, Lockdown Mode does create some minor hurdles on browsers, notifications, and iMessage.

When I use a browser, some images won’t render. Likewise, sometimes I will receive an alert that Lockdown Mode has blocked me from receiving something (e.g., a location share request) from someone I recognize. Usually, this does not represent a big issue for me.

However, the larger drawback I’ve experienced is that Lockdown Mode sometimes blocks unsecured text messages to or from unfamiliar numbers. Generally, I like this, as it seems to have cut down on spammy messages a great deal. But on a few occasions, it’s also blocked people whom I wanted to talk to, forcing me to redirect our conversation to a different messaging app.

While I wish everyone received their texts through Signal, the reality is that journalists sometimes talk over less-than-secure channels, including old-fashioned text messaging.

I am hopeful that as Google and Apple work more closely together in the coming months to roll out interoperable end-to-end encryption in their default messaging apps, this problem will resolve itself in Lockdown Mode too.

Whether this feature makes sense for you also means thinking through your particular risk assessment. Do you do any reporting that has angered trolls, state actors, or someone else with a large public profile, including their fans? Even one person with an unhealthy fixation on you may represent a risk. The work you do, as well as factors about you, will change your appraisal. Check out our guide to risk assessment if you’d like to learn more.

Think about your risk to help you decide how to move ahead, but I would strongly recommend trying it out. You might like it, Over/Under. I’d bet on it.

All the best,
Martin Shelton