A message protection method and an apparatus are disclosed. The method includes: When a terminal prepares to hand over from a first-standard system to a second-standard system, the terminal may not have a security context of the second-standard system after handover. Therefore, in the method of the present disclosure, the terminal performs integrity protection on a registration request message and a location update request message by using an integrity key in a security context of the first-standard system before handover. Both the registration request message and the location update request message are messages for triggering handover. Therefore, in the method, security protection is implemented on the message for triggering handover, thereby helping improve communication security.