Security News
Apple previously scuttled plans to add end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups, in part because such a move would have complicated law enforcement investigations, Reuters reports. Reuters' scoop highlights a behind-the-scenes compromise that explains what happened, with Apple reportedly opting to not use end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups as it faced increasing pressure from the U.S. government to ensure investigators could access user data.
Apple ditched plans to fully encrypt its iCloud backups two years ago after being pressured by the FBI, it is claimed. Under this plan, Apple would no longer have the key to unlock encrypted data, meaning it would no longer be able provide decrypted backups of its users to the authorities, even under court order.
Governments in the US and China are at the front of the line when it comes to knocking on Apple's door to request user data relating to fraud/phishing, according to the company's latest transparency report. Like any tech company that handles user data, Apple gets different types of requests: those that are made when an account holder is in imminent danger, those from law enforcement agencies trying to help people find their lost or stolen devices, those asking for Apple's help when thieves rip off credit card data so they can buy Apple products or services on somebody else's dime, and in situations where investigators think an account's been used to do something illegal.
Apple has published its latest transparency report, which provides details on the number of government requests the tech company received during the first half of 2019. Between January 1 and June 30, 2019, Apple received from governments device-based requests, financial identifier-based requests, and account-based requests.
President Donald Trump has weighed in on Apple's decision not to help the FBI unlock iPhones of the suspect in a shooting in Florida, slamming the company in a Tweet that demands Apple "Step up to the plate and help our great Country." "We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements," Trump wrote.
No surprise here: Apple has yet again said no to the FBI's request to break iOS encryption - this time, as it investigates the 6 December mass shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida. We have asked Apple for its help in unlocking the shooter's phones.
Apple and the US government are at loggerheads for the second time in four years over unlocking iPhones connected to a mass shooting, reviving debate over law enforcement access to encrypted devices. Attorney General Bill Barr claimed Monday that Apple failed to provide "Substantive assistance" in unlocking two iPhones in the investigation into the December shooting deaths of three US sailors at a Florida naval station, which he called an "Act of terrorism."
Apple has responded to a demand from the United States' Attorney General William Barr that it grant the FBI access to two iPhones used in a recent shooting by carefully calling bullshit on his claims. Barr held a press conference on Monday in which he accused Apple of not having given the FBI "Any substantive assistance" in the case of Saudi airman Mohammed al-Shamrani, who shot and killed three American sailors at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr is ratcheting up the pressure on Apple to unlock two iPhones belonging to a Saudi national who killed three at a military based in Pensacola, Florida, in December. In comments on Monday, the attorney general labeled the shooting as an act of terrorism and accused Apple of hampering a counterterrorism investigation.
Apple once again is drawing the line at breaking into a password-protected iPhone for a criminal investigation, refusing a request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help unlock the iPhones of a shooter responsible for an attack in Florida. While Apple said it's helping in the FBI's investigation of the Pensacola shooting-refuting criticism to the contrary-the company said it won't help the FBI unlock two phones the agency said belonged to Alshamrani.