Apple said on Wednesday it plans to expand end-to-end encryption of iCloud data to include backups, photos, notes, chat histories and other services, in a move that could further protect data. of the user, but also increase tensions with law enforcement around the world.
Among a host of new security tools is a feature called Advanced Data Protection, which will allow users to keep certain data more secure from hackers, governments and spies, even in the event of an Apple data breach.
Furthermore, law enforcement would not be able to gain access to this data, even with a warrant. With end-to-end encryption, not even the platform can access the data, only the sender and recipient.
As a result, Apple would be unable to comply with requests to share this cloud-stored data with employees as part of an investigation. Apple has previously run afoul of law enforcement over attempts to access data on devices, including an FBI attempt to hack into the iPhone of one of the gunmen behind the 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California.
In recent years, Apple has increasingly made privacy a central pillar of its discourse to users through a combination of new tools, including a feature designed to protect journalists and human rights defenders from spyware.
The company framed the latest move as part of an effort to combat “increasingly sophisticated and complex” threats to user data from malicious actors, as well as an increase in the number of data breaches.
Privacy groups have been calling for Apple for years to increase encryption for iCloud backups. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said that some of the steps taken more than a decade ago to design iCloud and the way it encrypts your data were “necessary precursors to getting to at this moment.”
In a blog post, Apple said iCloud already protects 14 categories of sensitive data using end-to-end encryption by default, including iCloud Keychain passwords and health data, and is adding nine new categories. Not included in the new list, however, is encryption for iCloud Mail, Contacts and Calendar due to interoperability challenges, Apple said.
Matthew Green, a cryptographer and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, believes Apple’s larger effort will set a standard for others to increase encryption.
“Why is this a good deal? Because Apple sets the standard for what secure cloud backup looks like,” Green said in a series of tweets on Wednesday. “Even as an optional feature, this move will have repercussions across the industry as competitors chase them.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the FBI said it “remains deeply concerned about the threat of end-to-end encryption and user-only access.”
“This undermines our ability to protect the American people from criminal acts ranging from cyberattacks and violence against children to drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism,” the FBI said in a statement.
“End-to-end, user-only access encryption erodes law enforcement’s ability to combat these threats and administer justice for the American public.”
*CNN’s Sean Lyngaas contributed to this story
Source: CNN Brasil
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