With some significant add-ons to their data protection, Apple launched end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups. Called Advanced Data Protection, Apple will expand the number of “data categories” protected by end-to-end encryption from 14 to 23, with backups, Notes, and Photos now covered. Data that are end-to-end encrypted can only be encrypted on “your trusted devices where you’re signed in with your Apple ID,” according to Apple, meaning that the company — or law enforcement or hackers — cannot access your data from Apple’s databases. Rolled out in Beta this week, it will be available broadly to US users by the end of the year and globally next year.
The company also announced the ability to verify the sender’s identity on the other side of iMessage, alert if a threat actor intercepts the message, and secure Apple IDs with a physical security key.
Finally, in response to pushback over perceived restrictions in China, the company is changing the settings of all users using Airdrop, where the setting will be reverted to Contacts Only after 10 minutes to prevent unwanted requests to receive content.
Why do we care?
End-to-end encrypting is not the holy grail of security, and simultaneously is a critical element of privacy. More importantly, it’s additional user support complexity. There will be more lost backups in the future for a lack of management here.
A useful tool in the toolkit, however.