Rapid Security Response, a special security function for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, was introduced by Apple on Monday at WWDC 2022.
With the new Rapid Security Response function, Apple’s OS for iPhone, iPad, and Mac PCs will enable security updates quicker to deploy.
Apple says that users will not have to sit tight for a full release of iOS, macOS or iPadOS and the security upgrades can be loaded on macOS without rebooting.
Meanwhile, in the iOS 16 developer preview, a new toggle for proactively installing updates on the new gen operating system has been discovered.
According to Apple, macOS Ventura will enhance security on macOS by supporting Rapid Security Response, a technology that will let upgrades to be installed “in between regular updates to easily keep security up to date without a reboot.”
The capability appears to be comparable to Ubuntu’s Livepatch Service, which allows users to upgrade the kernel while the operating system is running. Apple hasn’t spoken anything about how Rapid Security Response will operate on macOS yet.
Participants of the Apple Developer Program have already received developer previews for iOS, macOS, and PadOS, and MacRumors discovered a new Rapid Security Response functionality in iOS 16 that is said to make installing security upgrades faster and easier.
While iOS 15 has two toggles for automatically downloading and installing iOS upgrades, Apple has included a third toggle titled “Install System and Data Files” to the iOS 16 developer preview.
The new toggle, which is set by default, would allow users to enable automated security upgrade independent of iOS security updates, according to the report.
The text in the screenshot notes that upgrading to the most recent version of iOS may contain automatic upgrades to security settings and systems data files, and that the updates may take effect only after a reboot.
While this implies that users may not wait for a new iOS update to get critical security patches — similar to the features coming to macOS — it is worthy to note that Apple has yet to officially unveil the Rapid Security Response function.
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