Introducing Aster Vanguard Lockdown Mode

Lockdown Mode is a single tap that puts your entire inbox into a locked-down, protected state. It is inside Aster Vanguard, the security suite we built to protect the inboxes of people who carry the most risk. This includes:

• Journalists who need to protect their sources
• Activists whose accounts are worth a lot to an attacker
• Anyone who knows their email is a target, rather than just a mailbox

The idea for Lockdown Mode is quite simple:

• The moment you turn it on, Aster will stop loading external content.
• It will hide the previews on your notifications.
• It will stop your screen from being captured on our apps.
• It will keep all of it running until you decide it’s safe to turn it off.

That way, protecting yourself becomes one click instead of a checklist.

What happens the moment you turn it on

When you turn Lockdown Mode on, a few protections will all switch on at once, and you do not have to remember any of them for them all to work.

External content stops loading. This includes remote images, web fonts, and other bits that emails pull in from servers. Nothing inside an open message will reach back out. This means no sender can tell when you open their email, no tracking service gets to watch, and no one on the other end will learn where you are right now. The message will still show up, and you can read it in peace; it just stops reporting back to the sender.

Notifications stop showing previews. A new message will no longer put the sender’s name or subject line on your lock screen. Someone who is glancing at your phone on a table sees that mail arrived and nothing else: no name to recognize, no subject line, and no content to read.

Your screen cannot be captured on the apps. On the Aster apps, turning on Lockdown Mode tells the operating system to treat your inbox as protected, so a screenshot or screen recording of the app will come back blank. This covers a screenshot you take out of habit, when someone grabs your phone, or when any software is trying to record your screen in the background. It is worth noting that the web browser version does not have this, and a web browser does not give websites this kind of control. Screenshot protection will only work in the Aster apps for Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux, but not when you use Aster inside a browser tab.

It cannot be turned off by accident. Once you turn it on, turning it back off takes an extra step because you need to confirm that it is really you with your password plus two-factor authentication if you use it. There is no switch to bump. There is no way to accidentally turn Lockdown Mode off.

Where it fits

Lockdown Mode is one part of Aster Vanguard and the set of protections that will matter most when your account is something an attacker actively wants, rather than a regular inbox. It will sit next to the rest of your suite, including a PIN lock that kicks in after the app has been idle for a while. It is worth noting that Aster Vanguard is still in active development, and new features will be rolled out over time.

What it cannot do

We would like to be honest about its capabilities so you know exactly what this feature is. Lockdown Mode hardens your inbox, and it is very good at that, but it is not the same as full device encryption. It is not a panic button that wipes everything from your inbox, and it is not a substitute for keeping your device locked, encrypted, and handled with care. It only cuts down what your inbox is giving away and what somebody can see whenever you open their email, which is still a real protection. It cannot turn a phone that is already compromised back into a safe one. Paired with the rest of Aster, which keeps your mail encrypted so that we can never see what it says, Lockdown Mode will close the everyday gaps that encryption by itself was never meant to cover, such as:

• Notifications
• Tracking pixels
• Screenshots and video screen recordings

Where to find it

Lockdown Mode has been rolled out and is now in Aster as part of Aster Vanguard, which is included with Nova plans and above. The screen capture protection works in the Aster apps on Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux, and the rest of Lockdown Mode syncs across your devices.

Get Aster Vanguard with Nova