UK security officials asked Apple to create a ‘Kerkoporta’ That will allow it to recover all the content that has uploaded to the cloud any user of Apple worldwide, people who know the subject told the Washington Post.

The unknown command of the British government, issued last month, It requires general ability to view fully encrypted material, not just helping to break a particular account, and has no precedent in large democracies. Its implementation would signal a significant defeat for technology companies in their battle for decades to avoid being used as government tools against their users, sources commented, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Instead of defaming the security promises it gave its ubiquitous users, Apple is likely to stop offering Encrypted storage in the United Kingdom, they stressed. However, this concession would not fulfill the UK’s requirement for access via back door In other countries, including the United States.

Interior Minister’s office handed Apple a document called ‘Technical Ability Notice’, which orders it to provide access under the sweeping law on “research powers” of the United Kingdom of 2016, which authorizes authorities to force companies to assist them to collect evidence when needed.

The law makes a criminal offense even revealing that the British government has such a requirement. An Apple spokesman refused to comment.

Apple may appeal against alert to a secret technical committee, which will consider arguments on the cost of the claim, and to a judge who would evaluate whether the request was commensurate with government changes. However, the law does not allow Apple to delay its compliance during appeal

Last March, when the company was informed that such a requirement was on, he told the British Parliament: ‘There is no reason why the [κυβέρνηση] of the United Kingdom should have the power to decide whether citizens of the world can benefit from the proven security benefits arising from end to end. “

The interior ministry said on Thursday that his policy was not to discuss technical requirements. “We do not comment on business issues, including, for example, of confirmation or refusal of such notifications”, said a spokesman.

Senior national security officials in the Biden government have been watching the matter since Britain first told the company that it could require access and Apple replied that it would refuse. It could not be determined if they raised objections to Britain. White House officials and information services refused to comment.

One of the people informed of the situation, a consultant advising the United States on encryption issues, commented that in Apple will be forbidden to warn its users that its most advanced encryption no longer provides complete security. The person considered shocking the fact that the UK government was seeking Apple’s help to spy on Non -British users unknowingly of their governments. Former White House security adviser confirmed the existence of the British mandate.

The issue is the cloud storage that only the user, not Apple, can unlock. Apple started the choice, called “Advanced Data Protection” in 2022. He had tried to offer it several years earlier, but withdrew after FBI objections during President Donald Trump’s first term , who commented that the company does not help arrest “assassins, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements”. The service is a security option for Apple users in the United States and elsewhere.

While most iPhone and Mac users do not follow the steps to activate it, the service offers improved hacking protection and closes a regular “security hole” used by law enforcement authorities to access photos, messages and other material. The storage and backups of the iCloud become targets for US research warrants, which can be subsided by Apple without the user knowing.

Law enforcement authorities around the world have been complained of increased use of encryption in communication beyond telephone calls, which in the United States can be monitored with a court permit.

In particular, London and the FBI (Federal Research Office) have said that encryption allows terrorists and children to be more easily hidden.

Technology have resisted, pointing out the right to privacy and personal communication, and arguing that the lawsuit to enforce the law often exploit criminals and can abuse them in authoritarian regimes.

Most electronic communications are encrypted to some extent as they pass through private systems before reaching their destination. Usually such intermediaries, such as email providers and internet access companies, can receive the simple text if requested by the police.

However, an increasing number of services is encrypted from across to across, which means that no intermediary has access to the digital keys that will unlock the content. This includes Signal messages, Meta WhatsApp and Messenger messages, and Apple’s IMessages and Facetime calls. Often such content loses its protection from end to end when a backup for storage in the cloud. This is not the case with Apple’s “Advanced Data Protection” option.

Apple has turned privacy into an advantage for its telephone sales for years, a stance that has been reinforced in 2016 when he successfully resisted US order To unlock the iphone of a dead terrorist in San Bernadino, California. Since then it has tried to reconcile, as with the development of a plan for scanning user devices for illegal material. This initiative was canceled after strong criticism by privacy and security experts who said it would turn technology against consumers in unpredictable ways.

Google would be a larger target for UK officials because it has encrypted backburn for Android mobile phones from default since 2018.

Google spokesman Ed Fernandez refused to report whether a government had sought a back door, but implied that this had not been implemented. “Google cannot have access to Android backup data from end to end, even by legal order”, He stressed.

Meta also offers encrypted backups for the WhatsApp app. One spokesman refused to comment on government demands, but pointed out a statement of transparency on the company’s website, saying that no back doors or incomplete architecture would be implemented.

It is noted that if London ensures access to encrypted data, other countries that have allowed encrypted storage, such as China, may require similar access to Kerkoporta, which will probably lead Apple to withdraw the service instead of compliance.

The battle for the confidentiality of storage escalating in Britain It is not completely unexpected. In 2022, UK officials condemned Apple’s plans to introduce strong encryption for storage. “End -to -end encryption cannot prevent attempts to arrest the perpetrators of the most serious crimes”, He said a government spokesman in the Guardian newspaper, referring specifically to the laws on children’s safety.

After the interior ministry gave Apple a draft for what would be the backdrop for general access, the company hints at legislators and public opinion what could follow.

During a debate in parliament on amendments to the law on research powers, Apple warned in March that the law allowed the government to demand back doctors that could apply worldwide. “These provisions could be used to force a company such as Apple, which will never build back doctors in its products, withdraw public critical security features from the UK market, depriving British users these protections.” referred to a document submitted.

Apple then argued that the use of the law against strong encryption would come into conflict with its decision European Court of Human Rights according to which any law requires companies to deliver encrypted communications from end to end “it is in danger of weakening the encryption mechanism for all users” and violates European right to privacy.

In the United States, decades of reactions from authorities over encryption were recently abandoned by mass invasions of suspected Chinese government agents who violated the largest communications companies and bowed to calls at will. In a joint press briefing in December on the case with the FBI chiefs, an internal security official urged the Americans not to rely on the formal telephone service for confidentiality and use encrypted services when possible.

Also, that month, the FBI, the National Security Service (NSA) and the infrastructure cyber security and security service recommended dozens of steps to deal with the Chinese hacking, including the “Make sure the communication is encrypted from end to end to the maximum extent possible.”

Officials in Canada, New Zealand and Australia have approved US recommendations. Officials in the United Kingdom did not.