Did the FBI get Apple to kill iCloud backup encryption?Reuters detonated a huge controversy in the Apple and security spaces yesterday with this headline — Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources.
First, what Reuters is referring to as "backups" here is specifically iCloud backups. There are still two ways to backup Apple devices — to iCloud and locally to a Mac or PC. For a very long time now, and still, to this day, you can locally back up to your Mac or PC and opt-in to those backups being password encrypted. It's not a plan, it's a checkbox. And none of that has changed.
Second. Based on reactions to the headline, many people, including very tech-savvy people, didn't seem to realize or remember that iCloud backups weren't quote-unquote encrypted.
I say quote-unquote because the backups actually are encrypted. But, Apple has their own set of keys and can access them.
Which… is not unusual. There are a couple of reasons for that: Features and fail-safes.
Features and fail-safes
I'll get...
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Did the FBI get Apple to kill iCloud backup encryption?
