Defense against hacker attacks: Apple plans a new encryption system

Defense against hacker attacks
Apple plans a new encryption system

12/07/2022, 21:01

Even in ongoing criminal proceedings, Apple has been reticent when investigators want to crack suspects’ iPhones. Until now, there was a bypass via iCloud backups. But in the future they will also be encrypted to protect users from hackers.

iPhone maker Apple plans to significantly expand its data encryption practices, a move that is likely to increase tensions with law enforcement agencies around the world. The enhanced end-to-end encryption system, an optional feature called Advanced Data Protection, would protect most of your iCloud data even in the event of a hack. At the same time, it would also prevent Apple from providing data from iCloud phone backups to law enforcement agencies.

In the past, while Apple couldn’t help authorities like the Federal Bureau of Investigation access data on its encrypted iPhones, it was able to provide much of the data stored in iCloud backups in response to a legal request. In the past year, the company claims to have answered thousands of such inquiries in the United States. With the new security measures, Apple would no longer be technically able to honor certain law enforcement requests, such as iCloud backups containing iMessage attachments and chat logs.

“Hackers go a long way”

Apple said it wants to protect customers from increasingly sophisticated hacker attacks with new data encryption practices. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said in an interview that customers are increasingly storing personal information about their lives on their devices. Some hackers would go to great lengths to obtain the private information of the target.

The dispute between Apple and especially the US authorities has been simmering for years. In 2020, according to a Reuters report, the company dropped plans to encrypt iCloud backups only after massive FBI intervention.