I saw something on my iPhone last night that I had never seen before: an alert that there was a special kind of iOS update available, a Rapid Security Response update. You may have seen it too. What was that?
Apple typically releases security updates when a new version of iOS is ready. Right now, the latest version is iOS 16.4.1, which was released on April 7. I'm sure that Apple is already working on the next iOS update—perhaps 16.4.2, or perhaps 16.5—but what if there is a need to encourage users to install a security update but the next iOS version isn't ready yet? In the past, we just had to wait, which meant that the iPhone was vulnerable to a known security flaw for a period of time. But thanks to Apple's new Rapid Security Response system, which was introduced with iOS 16.4.1, Apple can now quickly push a security update even if it is not yet ready to provide a feature update. And because these security updates don't contain feature updates, they are likely to be quick to download and quick to install. And while I'm focusing here on iOS, the Rapid Security Response system also works with iPad OS, so I updated my iPad last night too.
After you have installed a Rapid Security Response update, a letter appears after the version number when you check to see what version of the iOS you are running. For example, I now see that my iPhone is running iOS 16.4.1 (a).
Unlike a regular software update, this first Rapid Security Response update did not have any release notes. I don't yet know if that will always be true, and if so, we won't know exactly what Apple was fixing. But we will know that it was important enough that Apple wants to push the update out quickly. Frankly, that's all that I need to know. I guess it is possible that this was even just a test of the system, not a real security fix.
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