As per a news report, Apple has now been targeted by the UK Government, demanding the backdoor access to all of its iCloud Backups. From what is being said, user data of not just the UK citizens, but of all users globally has been asked for, posing a great security threat over user data.
Here’s more about the report.
Is the UK Government’s Demand for Backdoor Access to Encrypted iCloud Backups a Threat?
This news which originally comes from a recent The Washington Post news report (received via @mattjay) underlines a serious security threat for Apple iCloud users. While the UK Government has not openly shared anything regarding this, from people who are familiar with the matter, it has been understood that the UK Government has ordered Apple to provide access to all its iCloud Backups under the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. This order which has been issued last month seriously affects Apple’s promise of user privacy, at the same time may pave way for bigger threats too. Furthermore, Apple itself cannot comment on whether the UK Government has actually issued such an order or not, because the Investigatory Powers Act which is also addressed as ‘Snooper’s Charter’ by critics, prevents Apple from doing so and it is a legal or criminal offense to disclose or comment on the existence of such government demands.
Speaking more, when mentioning ‘access to all of its iCloud Backups’, this doesn’t mean access to just user data of UK citizens, but of all users globally. While sources claim that Apple would probably take a decision of calling-off encrypted cloud storage backups from UK, and not from other global users, the original source via which this news was revealed points out that the UK Government has a hidden agenda to spy on user data of non-UK citizens, without the knowledge of their governments. So in simple words, the UK Government has in fact asked for Apple’s help to spy on the cloud data of users outside of the UK, under the pretense of ensuring safety and security.
So how is this a problem? Once Apple takes down its advanced encrypted data protection from people for the ‘good guys’, obviously it makes it easier for the ‘bad guys’ to attack and hack user data. Moreover, the so-called ‘good guys’ will also have unlimited access to all user data, meaning they too have control over these data and can make use of them for personal gains or anything more. Also to add, apart from Apple, Google and Meta are other giant tech companies that offer end to end encryption on their services, and it is still not sure whether the UK Government have asked them for the same, and if it has, both Google and Meta won’t be able to reveal about it.
As far as Apple is concerned, the company could go for an appeal to a ‘secret technical panel’ and raise arguments and inform legal authorities about the serious threats behind such a Government demand. However, even during the appeal, Apple will be in no position to deny or delay the backdoor access to the UK Government as per what has been stated in the above mentioned law.
