The latest update to the iPhone operating system, iOS 16.3, could pass for being a minor update to the operating system, since it has not been talked about and, if we quickly read its news, it may seem that they are not much. However, two important novelties come from his hand, one for the whole world and the other for the whole world except the United States, where it was already available for some time, and both can make the use of the Apple smartphone much more sure.
First of all, and announced for some time now, support for “hardware keys” has finally arrived as part of secure user identification. With iOS 16.3 it is now possible to use devices like the Yubikey, which we talked about here a few months ago. As we told you in that same article, biometric identification is secure… up to a certain limit and, if we need a high level of security, resort to elements such as security keys, which connect to the iPhone through its Lightning port, preventing You can log in to it if you don’t have it.
The iPhone, being a fairly common phone among personalities, executives and public officials, is subjected to endless threats, and Apple is very aware of this. the scandal of Pegasus marked a before and after in this senseto which Apple responded by denouncing the NSO Group and, more recently, creating the Isolation mode, which subtracts a good part of its functionality from the phone but, with it, offers a more than high level of security.
Another important novelty, it is already present in the United States but with iOS 16.3 it jumps to the rest of the world is that We can now configure iCloud to use end-to-end encryption. It is important to keep in mind, however, that this new and expected function does not cover Mail, Contacts and Calendar, since these apps interact with a large number of servers and third-party services that, according to the company, make it terribly complicated. enable it. Yes, it will be available with the rest of the services of the Apple cloud platform.
This is especially important if we take into account that, for example, Search may be constantly reporting our location, and that of the members of the family group. In other words, if we connect to the Internet through an unsecured network (or a supposedly secure network but with an infiltrator) and use the service, the analysis of network traffic could reveal such information. However, with the arrival of iOS 16.3, even the use of an insecure network would not compromise such information. Although, anyway, you know, if you use an insecure network (like a public network, for example) always use a VPN.
