The last time I posted on the circus surrounding the discovery of backdoors in iOS, I called on Apple to be far more transparent about all of this as their response did little to make people feel better. Now they have. A support document has been posted that details what these functions within iOS do:
Each of these diagnostic capabilities requires the user to have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer. Any data transmitted between the iOS device and trusted computer is encrypted with keys not shared with Apple. For users who have enabled iTunes Wi-Fi Sync on a trusted computer, these services may also be accessed wirelessly by that computer.
The article then goes on to explain in some amount of detail the three functions and what they are used for. Now it’s unusual for explanations about “diagnostic capabilities” in Apple software to be documented in a public support document. That implies that Apple wants people to find them. Now it’s a safe bet that security experts and others will still have questions about these three functions, but at least Apple is showing that they recognize that they can’t just sweep this under the rug.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on July 23, 2014 at 6:51 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Apple Posts Document Explaining What The iOS “Backdoors” Are
The last time I posted on the circus surrounding the discovery of backdoors in iOS, I called on Apple to be far more transparent about all of this as their response did little to make people feel better. Now they have. A support document has been posted that details what these functions within iOS do:
Each of these diagnostic capabilities requires the user to have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer. Any data transmitted between the iOS device and trusted computer is encrypted with keys not shared with Apple. For users who have enabled iTunes Wi-Fi Sync on a trusted computer, these services may also be accessed wirelessly by that computer.
The article then goes on to explain in some amount of detail the three functions and what they are used for. Now it’s unusual for explanations about “diagnostic capabilities” in Apple software to be documented in a public support document. That implies that Apple wants people to find them. Now it’s a safe bet that security experts and others will still have questions about these three functions, but at least Apple is showing that they recognize that they can’t just sweep this under the rug.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on July 23, 2014 at 6:51 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.