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What are Apple’s new Rapid Security Response iOS updates?

Your device allows Rapid Security Responses to be applied automatically

FILE - An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. An appeals court on Monday, April 24, 2023, upheld Apple's exclusive control over the distribution of iPhone apps in a ruling that rejected the latest attempt to force one of the world's most powerful companies to dismantle the digital walls protecting its most lucrative product. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File) (Kathy Willens, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Apple launched a new type of alert this year aimed at security patches for your iOS devices.

Here’s what Apple said about the new feature:

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Rapid Security Responses are a new type of software release for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. They deliver important security improvements between software updates — for example, improvements to the Safari web browser, the WebKit framework stack, or other critical system libraries. They may also be used to mitigate some security issues more quickly, such as issues that might have been exploited or reported to exist “in the wild.”

New Rapid Security Responses are delivered only for the latest version of iOS, iPadOS and macOS — beginning with iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, and macOS 13.3.1.

By default, your device allows Rapid Security Responses to be applied automatically and, if necessary, will prompt you to restart your device.

When a Rapid Security Response has been applied, a letter appears after the software version number, as in this example: macOS 13.3.1 (a).

One was just issued on May 14 for iOS 16.4.1, which now has an (a) version.


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