Encryption

Apple's Advanced Data Protection for iCloud feature uses end-to-end encryption to provide the highest level of cloud data security that Apple offers. Here's everything you need to know about enabling it on your devices. The encrypted security feature gives you the choice to further protect your important iCloud data, including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more. Apple's use of...

Signal Encrypted Messenger has become increasingly popular among smartphone users, thanks above all else to its emphasis on privacy and security. Signal chats are end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one – not even the Signal service – can see the messages that you send and receive to other users. In addition, Signal supports the creation of group chats, and like regular conversations in the...

In macOS Mojave, you can choose to encrypt and decrypt disks on the fly right from the desktop. Using this convenient Finder option, we're going to show you how to encrypt a USB flash drive (or "thumb drive"), which is useful if you're traveling light and want to take sensitive data with you for use on another Mac. Finder uses XTS-AES encryption, the same encryption that FileVault 2 uses to...

Two human rights groups have filed a legal complaint with the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in an attempt to quash the UK government's demand for Apple to allow backdoor access to its encrypted data (via Financial Times). Earlier this year, the UK government invoked the Investigatory Powers Act to demand that Apple create a backdoor granting secret access to encrypted user data...

Apple says it will add support for a new Rich Communication Services (RCS) specification that includes end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for messages sent over the protocol in future software updates. "End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross industry effort to bring...

U.S. officials are looking at whether the United Kingdom violated a bilateral agreement by demanding Apple create a "backdoor" to access end-to-end encrypted iCloud data, according to a letter from National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard (via Reuters). The investigation comes after Apple's recent decision to withdraw its Advanced Data Protection feature from the UK after the British...

Apple on February 21 withdrew its Advanced Data Protection feature from the United Kingdom following government demands for backdoor access to encrypted user data. The move came after UK officials reportedly ordered Apple in secret to provide unrestricted access to encrypted iCloud not just in the UK, but worldwide. The development has naturally left some Apple device users in the UK asking ...

Apple has withdrawn its Advanced Data Protection iCloud feature from the United Kingdom following government demands for backdoor access to encrypted user data, according to Bloomberg. The move comes after UK officials secretly ordered Apple to provide unrestricted access to encrypted iCloud content worldwide. Customers who are already using Advanced Data Protection, or ADP, will need to...

Members of key congressional oversight committees have called on the United States' new top intelligence director to pressure the United Kingdom to withdraw its controversial demand for Apple to create a backdoor into encrypted user data stored in iCloud, according to The Washington Post. Last week The Post revealed that a secret UK order, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act last...

Given today's bombshell report revealing the UK government's unprecedented demand for backdoor access to encrypted iCloud data, it's clear that Apple now faces a massive challenge. How it responds could have major implications for not only the company's privacy stance, but also its global operations as well as its reputation. According to The Washington Post, the British government has...

The British government has secretly demanded that Apple give it blanket access to all encrypted user content uploaded to the cloud, reports The Washington Post. The undisclosed order is said to have been issued last month, and requires that Apple creates a back door that allows UK security officials unencumbered access to encrypted user data worldwide – an unprecedented demand not before...

Pavel Durov, the 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris late Saturday evening. The arrest occurred shortly after Durov arrived on a private jet from Azerbaijan and is said to be part of a joint investigation by several agencies investigating alleged failures in content moderation on the Telegram platform that may have...

An unpatchable vulnerability has been discovered in Apple's M-series chips that allows attackers to extract secret encryption keys from Macs under certain conditions, according to a newly published academic research paper (via ArsTechnica). Named "GoFetch," the type of cyber attack described involves Data Memory-Dependent Prefetchers (DMPs), which try to predict what data the computer will...

Swiss-based privacy startup Proton today announced the availability of its end-to-end encrypted desktop mail app for macOS and Windows, with a Linux version in beta. According to the company, the Proton Mail desktop app has been optimized to integrate with Macs, which means it can sync themes with the desktop's light or dark mode, display notifications natively, and offer instant switching...

As part of its compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation, WhatsApp is putting the final touches to introducing platform interoperability with other encrypted messaging apps. In September, EU lawmakers designated WhatsApp parent company Meta as one of six so-called "gatekeepers," along with Google, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, and Microsoft, giving them six months to begin...

Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for personal messages and calls on Messenger and Facebook, finally delivering on a pledge it committed to some time ago. Messenger encryption originally arrived in 2016 in the form of "secret conversations," and plans to extend the platform's cryptographic features have been floated ever since. According to Loredana Crisan, Head of Messenger,...

Swiss-based privacy startup Proton today announced the availability of its end-to-end encrypted cloud storage service for Mac users with the launch of its macOS app. Proton Drive lets users sync files between Mac and the cloud, access files offline, and free up space on local drives. Unlike iCloud, all data (including metadata) is end-to-end encrypted by default, so that no-one – not even...

Encrypted messaging app Signal has announced it is testing public account usernames so that users don't have to share their phone number to connect through the service. Currently, signing up to Signal requires that you share your phone number with other users when connecting with them. While the new method still requires an account to be associated with a number during setup, it is not...

The UK government has denied that it has dropped a controversial plan to scan encrypted messaging services for harmful content as part of its Online Safety Bill, which is due to become law later this year. A provision in the bill allows regulator Ofcom to order messaging services to use "accredited technology" to look for and take down child sexual abuse material. However, according to a ...

Apple on Thursday provided its fullest explanation yet for last year abandoning its controversial plan to detect known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) stored in iCloud Photos. Apple's statement, shared with Wired and reproduced below, came in response to child safety group Heat Initiative's demand that the company "detect, report, and remove" CSAM from iCloud and offer more tools for...

Earlier this week, Google updated its Authenticator app to enable the backup and syncing of 2FA codes across devices using a Google Account. Now an examination by Mysk security researchers has found that the sensitive one-time passcodes being synced to the cloud aren't end-to-end encrypted, leaving them potentially exposed to bad actors. Prior to the integration of Google Account support,...

WhatsApp, Signal, and other messaging services have penned an open letter to the British government appealing for it to urgently rethink the Online Safety Bill (OSB), a piece of legislation that would allow regulators to ask the platforms to monitor users in order to identify child abuse images. Under the bill, the government could force chat services to apply content moderation policies...

WhatsApp would exit the U.K. market rather than be in thrall to the government's proposed Online Safety Bill if it undermined the app's end-to-end encryption, the platform's chief has said (via BBC News). End-to-end encryption ensures that only the user and the person they are communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, and nobody in between, not even Meta/Facebook, can gain...