In the end, pressure from the FBI forced Apple to back down. Reuters reports that reliable sources have confirmed Apple has canceled plans to allow users to encrypt their iCloud backups . The reason? This security measure would interfere with federal investigations.
Unencrypted backups to iCloud, less security for your safety
Apple has always defended the privacy of its customers, and this position has cost it more than one anger with the intelligence agency of the United States, since, in the past, it refused to unlock an iPhone involved in the shootings of Saint Bernardine. His position remained firm, and has continued to do so to the point of launching advertising campaigns in which he reinforces his opinion of defending the user.
But the situation has reached its limit, or at least that's what we understand from the information published by Reuters, where they claim that Apple has decided not to further strain relations with the authorities by canceling a project in development that aimed to encrypt backups stored in iCloud.
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The suspicions come after finding out that the people in charge of the project (known internally as Plesio and KeyDrop) have stopped working on it. In this way, the FBI could carry out their investigations without physically attacking the phone, so they could obtain important data for the investigation completely silently.
And it is that this happens today, since Apple has published on numerous occasions through its semi-annual transparency report that it receives numerous requests for data from government agencies. To give you an idea, the US authorities received backup copies from Apple of more than 6.000 accounts to cover up to 1.568 cases. According to Cupertino, in 90% of cases they deliver them.
As there is no end-to-end encryption, these backup copies can be fully read without any problem, so the data is perfectly visible to whoever has the copy. Obviously, if the government presents the judicial document that allows it to have said copy, Apple will be obliged to deliver it without question, however, it is interesting to see how the context has changed radically if we take into account that Apple has canceled a project that It tried to offer greater security to users. And all because of the pressures of the government.
In recent months, even Donald Trump had gone so far as to accuse Apple of protecting terrorists and criminals by not making it easy for the FBI to unlock phones or provide data that could aid investigations. This is why the Cupertino company may have relented, preferring to avoid being labeled as defenders of criminals.
Still, there are former Apple employees who are betting that the decision to cancel the Plesio project was more about not trying to make things difficult for users with more encryption, as many customers would have their data locked out more often than ever.
How secure is your iCloud account?
Apparently, Apple completely protects data as important as passwords or health data, however, the records and backups of iMessage, WhatsApp and other encrypted services are perfectly in the hands of Apple employees and authorities, so that in case of receiving a request from a security agency, they could deliver them.