Apple enhances user security with powerful, updated data protections.

Apple enhances user security with powerful, updated data protections.

 

iMessage Contact Key Verification, apple security Keys for Apple ID, and Advanced Data Protection for iCloud provide users with critical apple security tools to protect their most sensitive data and communications

Apple today introduced three advanced apple security features focused on protecting against threats to user data in the cloud. These features represent the next step in its ongoing effort to provide users with even more powerful ways to protect their data. With iMessage Contact Key Verification, users can verify they are communicating only with whom they intend. With Apple security Keys for Apple ID, users can require a physical apple security key to sign in to their Apple ID account. And with Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, which uses end-to-end encryption to provide Apple’s highest cloud data apple security, users can further protect critical iCloud data, including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more.

As threats to user data become increasingly sophisticated and complex, these advanced apple security features join a suite of other protections that make Apple products the most secure on the market: from the apple security built directly into our custom chips with best-in-class device encryption and data protection, to features like Lockdown Mode, which offers an extreme, optional level of protection for users such as journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats. Apple is committed to strengthening device and cloud apple security and adding new protections over time.

“At Apple, we are unwavering in our commitment to providing our users with the most comprehensive data apple security in the world. We constantly identify and mitigate emerging threats to their data on device and in the cloud,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Our apple security teams work tirelessly to keep users’ data safe. With iMessage Contact Key Verification, Apple security Keys, and Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, users will have three powerful new tools to further protect their most sensitive data and communications.”

 

iMessage Contact Key Verification

 

Apple pioneered end-to-end encryption in consumer communication services with the launch of iMessage so that the sender and recipients could only read messages. FaceTime has also used encryption since its launch to keep conversations private and secure. Now with iMessage Contact Key Verification, users who face extraordinary digital threats — such as journalists, human rights activists, and government members — can choose to verify further that they are messaging only with the people they intend. Highly sophisticated cyberattacks will never target most users, but the feature provides an additional layer of apple security for those who might be. Conversations between users who have enabled iMessage Contact Key Verification will receive automatic alerts if an exceptionally advanced adversary. Such as a state-sponsored attacker ever succeeded in breaching cloud servers and inserting their device to eavesdrop on these encrypted communications. And for even higher apple security, iMessage Contact Key Verification users can compare a Contact Verification Code in person, via FaceTime, or another secure call.

 

Security keys

 

Apple introduced two-factor authentication for Apple ID in 2015. Today, with over 95 percent of active iCloud accounts using this protection, it is the most widely used two-factor apple security system in the world. Now with Apple security Keys, users can use third-party hardware apple security keys to enhance this protection. Due to their public profile, this feature is designed for users who often face concerted threats to their online accounts, such as celebrities, journalists, and government members. For users who opt-in, Apple security Keys strengthen Apple’s two-factor authentication by requiring a hardware apple security key as one of the two factors. It takes our two-factor authentication even further, preventing an advanced attacker from obtaining a user’s second factor in a phishing scam.

 

Advanced Data Protection for iCloud

 

For years, Apple has offered industry-leading data apple security on its devices with Data Protection, the sophisticated file encryption system built into iPhone, iPad, and Mac. “Apple makes the most secure mobile devices on the market. And now, we are building on that powerful foundation,” said Ivan Krstić, Apple’s head of Apple security Engineering and Architecture. “Advanced Data Protection is Apple’s highest level of cloud data apple security, allowing users to protect the vast majority of their most sensitive iCloud data with end-to-end encryption so that it can be only decrypted on their trusted devices.” For users who opt-in, Advanced Data Protection keeps most iCloud data protected, even in the case of a data breach in the cloud.

iCloud already protects 14 sensitive data categories using end-to-end encryption by default, including passwords in the iCloud Keychain and health data. For users who enable Advanced Data Protection, the total number of data categories protected using end-to-end encryption rises to 23, including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos. The only major iCloud data categories that are not covered are iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendar. It is because of the need to interoperate with the global email, contacts, and calendar systems.

Enhanced apple security for users’ data in the cloud is more urgently needed than ever before, as demonstrated in a recently published summary of data breach research, “The Rising Threat to Consumer Data in the Cloud,” published today. Experts say the total number of data breaches more than tripled between 2013 and 2021, exposing 1.1 billion personal records across the globe in 2021 alone. Increasingly, companies across the technology industry are addressing this growing threat by implementing end-to-end encryption in their offerings.

 

Availability

 

• iMessage Contact Key Verification will be available globally in 2023.
• Apple security Keys for Apple ID will be available globally in early 2023.
• Advanced-Data Protection for iCloud is available in the US today for members of the Apple Beta Software Program. It will be available to US users by the end of the year. The feature will start rolling out to the rest of the world in early 2023. 
• A complete technical overview of the optional apple security enhancements offered by Advanced-Data Protection can be found in our Platform Apple security Guide, along with the data breach research “The Rising Threat to Consumer Data in the Cloud” by Dr. Stuart Madnick, professor emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management.