iPhones 17 Pro are displayed during an Apple's event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, US September 9, 2025.
Credit: Reuters
Compared to other platforms, Apple devices come with the most robust security features against malware and cyber threats. Despite the strong protection, threat actors, sometimes due to oversight on the part of security engineers, manage to find loopholes to exploit and try to steal sensitive documents or track high-value citizens.
Having said that, there has never been a successful, widespread malware attack against an iPhone to date. To maintain that track record, Apple, with the launch of the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 and 17 Pro series, has launched the Memory Integrity Enforcement feature.
This MIE feature is custom-designed to thwart mercenary spyware that targets prominent people in politics, human rights activists, investigative journalists and celebrities with iPhone.
In 2018, Apple was the first in the industry to deploy Pointer Authentication Codes (PAC) in the A12 Bionic chip. Later, the Cupertino-based company worked with UK-based ARM to introduce Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension (EMTE)in 2022 to protect the storage space containing sensitive information.
Now, with MIE, it will further fortify the iPhone against cyber threats.
The all-new iPhone 17, 17 Air and 17 Pro series.
Credit: Apple
"MIE is built right into Apple hardware and software in all models of iPhone 17 and iPhone Air and offers unparalleled, always-on memory safety protection for our key attack surfaces, including the kernel, while maintaining the power and performance that users expect," the company said.
With MIE integration in the new iPhone 17 series models, there is almost no chance for any attackers to exploit memory corruption vulnerabilities in Apple devices.
Going forward, all new Apple devices will come withthe Memory Integrity Enforcement feature to curb mercenary spyware threats.
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