Sharjah24 - AFP: Apple on Wednesday unveiled a new way for activists, journalists and other targets of state-sponsored espionage to protect themselves from spyware.

A Lockdown Mode being added to iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers is intended to counter threats from a thriving industry that provides sophisticated espionage tools to governments.

"While the vast majority of users will never be the victims of highly targeted cyberattacks, we will work tirelessly to protect the small number of users who are," Apple head of security engineering Ivan Krstic said in a blog post.

The tech giant is upping the bounty it pays researchers for uncovering vulnerabilities in its software when it comes to Lockdown Mode, raising the maximum reward to $2 million.

Concerns over digital snooping have been fueled by media outlets reporting that Pegasus spyware made by NSO Group in Israel was being used by governments to surveil opponents, activists and journalists.

Apple is suing NSO Group in US federal court, saying the Israeli firm's spyware was used to attack a small number of iPhone users worldwide.

"State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability," Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said when the suit was filed late last year.