Apple eliminates a central iCloud shortcoming: users will soon have the option of protecting their iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, so that no third party – not even Apple – can view this data. In addition to backing up devices and messages, Advanced Data Protection should also provide end-to-end encryption for better protection of photos, iCloud Drive, notes, Safari bookmarks, reminders and voice memos, the company said on Wednesday. The protection function is optional and will be introduced with iOS 16.2 in the USA, and it should be available in other countries from early 2023.
End-to-end encryption for almost all iCloud
This makes it possible to use a large part of the iCloud services with end-to-end encryption in the future. E-mail, contacts and calendar remain excluded because these functions have to interact with other systems, notes Apple. Apple has regularly been sharply criticized for the lack of end-to-end encryption of iCloud backups, because the group can and does release such iCloud data when requested by the state.
It has taken long enough: Important iCloud data such as backups and photos will soon be protected with end-to-end encryption.
(Image: Apple)
Another problem is that the iCloud backup contains all communication from the iMessage service, which has been using end-to-end encryption since the beginning. If users switch to “Messages in iCloud”, the messages were also protected there using end-to-end encryption, but the key for this is in the iCloud backup.
Apple boss Tim Cook had already announced in 2018 that Apple wanted to get rid of the iCloud key. Afterwards there was always speculation that the group had not implemented this under pressure from the US Federal Police FBI.
New security features for iMessage and Apple ID
iOS 16 and macOS 13 have already introduced a number of important security innovations, including lockdown mode for better protection against spyware. Further functions will soon follow: A verification option for the iMessage key of the person you are talking to will ensure from 2023 that you are only communicating with the right person and that no third party was able to latch on. Here, too, Apple primarily refers to protection against experienced espionage attempts by state-sponsored hackers.
From early 2023, users can also protect their Apple ID with a security key. Already, 95 percent of active iCloud accounts use the existing two-factor authentication, Apple said. In the future, a security key can optionally serve as a second factor.
(lbe)