Security News > 2020 > January > Apple allegedly made nice with FBI by dropping iCloud encryption plan
In spite of Apple having turned over the shooter's iCloud backups in the case of the Pensacola, Florida mass shooting last month, the US government has been raking it over the coals for supposedly not helping law enforcement in investigations.
Specifically, according to six sources - Reuters relied on the input of one current and three former FBI officials and one current and one former Apple employee - a few years ago, Apple, under pressure from the FBI, backed off of plans to let iPhones users have end-to-end encryption on their iCloud backups.
Its sources told Reuters that more than two years ago, Apple told the FBI that it planned to offer end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups, primarily as a way to thwart hackers.
A former FBI official who wasn't involved in the iCloud encryption talks said that during the fight over encryption of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, the bureau had managed to convince Apple that evidence from iCloud backups had made a difference in thousands of cases.
Neither Apple nor the FBI has responded to media requests for comment on the reported abandonment of iCloud encryption.
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