Apple has claimed that nobody can snoop into iMessages sent from your iDevice. Here’s their exact statement on that:
For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.
However, researchers at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur are asserting that someone inside Apple could look at the iMessages that you send. This is now starting to be picked up by the mainstream media such as the Washington Post. Here’s what the researchers had to say in a blog post:
- What we are not saying: Apple reads your iMessages.
- What we are saying: Apple can read your iMessages if they choose to, or if they are required to do so by a government order.
As Apple claims, there is end-to-end encryption. The weakness is in the key infrastructure as it is controlled by Apple: they can change a key anytime they want, thus read the content of our iMessages.
Also remember that the content of the message is one thing, but the metadata are also sensitive. And there, you rely on Apple to carry your messages, thus they have your metadata.
Now the blog post is fairly technical, but it boils down to this: Apple COULD intercept and decrypt iMessages. Even though the messages are encrypted end-to-end, Apple manages the keys needed to encrypt and exchange the messages, Thus everything from “honey, I’ll be late for dinner” to “Let me send you this picture of me naked so that you know what you’re going to get tonight” could be fair game for a rogue Apple employee or for any police or security agency that had a legal warrant. Now I must be clear here: There’s no evidence that they have done this, but it does make one say “hmmmm…..”
In light of this and given that privacy issues are top of mind at the moment, it might be wise for Apple to come out and clear the air on this. Otherwise, the big cloud of suspicion will hang over 1 Infinite Loop until they do.
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This entry was posted on October 17, 2013 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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iMessages Security Questioned
Apple has claimed that nobody can snoop into iMessages sent from your iDevice. Here’s their exact statement on that:
For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.
However, researchers at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur are asserting that someone inside Apple could look at the iMessages that you send. This is now starting to be picked up by the mainstream media such as the Washington Post. Here’s what the researchers had to say in a blog post:
As Apple claims, there is end-to-end encryption. The weakness is in the key infrastructure as it is controlled by Apple: they can change a key anytime they want, thus read the content of our iMessages.
Also remember that the content of the message is one thing, but the metadata are also sensitive. And there, you rely on Apple to carry your messages, thus they have your metadata.
Now the blog post is fairly technical, but it boils down to this: Apple COULD intercept and decrypt iMessages. Even though the messages are encrypted end-to-end, Apple manages the keys needed to encrypt and exchange the messages, Thus everything from “honey, I’ll be late for dinner” to “Let me send you this picture of me naked so that you know what you’re going to get tonight” could be fair game for a rogue Apple employee or for any police or security agency that had a legal warrant. Now I must be clear here: There’s no evidence that they have done this, but it does make one say “hmmmm…..”
In light of this and given that privacy issues are top of mind at the moment, it might be wise for Apple to come out and clear the air on this. Otherwise, the big cloud of suspicion will hang over 1 Infinite Loop until they do.
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This entry was posted on October 17, 2013 at 3:28 pm 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.