It has been reported that the UK government has dropped its demands to create a backdoor into Apple’s encryption. Andy McKay, our Head of IT & Cyber Security Services at Converged Communication Solutions, shares his view:
“This proposal from the UK government received significant pushback because of its wider implications.
“While the intention of the backdoor was to more easily track criminals and terrorists, it also damaged the privacy and security of all Apple users.
“Backdoors can’t only be embedded into specific products, or localised for specific governments, such a move would have impacted Apple’s full suite, directly hitting all users while defacing the security of its products.
“Furthermore, with an opportunity to gain access to data stored on all Apple devices, criminals would have worked determinedly to find the backdoor. Eventually they would have succeeded. Given that Apple devices are widely used by organisations and in highly sensitive government departments, criminals and nation-state actors could have been offered a goldmine of information.
“While Apple no longer offers Advanced Encryption in the UK, which will significantly hurt users in the country, adding a backdoor would have had global consequences, which is a risk Apple and the US government were clearly not willing to take.
“It is therefore positive, but not entirely surprising, that the UK has backed down with its demands.”
Read the full article at Security on Screen.