United Kingdom is close to taking a step that, if implemented, may jeopardize the information and data of users of Apple devices in the country. According to Just Security, the British government is suggesting that it could eventually block some security updatesof devices for security reasons national, and to be able to continue with the surveillance that they are carrying out through the gaps.
The country’s authorities are considering that the technology companies have to notify the British government that they are going to deploy a security update before doing so. So far, everything in order. The problem is that the UK authorities may deny them permission to do so in the event that some of the fixes in the update block a vulnerability that is being exploited by UK security services.
This comes just a few days after the country’s authorities announced that they are preparing a law with measures that would make it mandatory for messaging services to offer backdoors into end-to-end encryption systems. The law, known as the Online Safety Bill, has received strong rejection by services such as WhatsApp or Signal, but also by technology companies such as Apple. Its managers have already assured that they would prefer to withdraw their messaging apps, such as iMessage or FaceTime, from the British market, than to comply with said law.
The British government thus continues its crusade to end end-to-end encryption, which it has been trying for at least six years, not without internal voices that oppose it. It’s been a few years now the former head of MI5 said that doing so was a dangerous idea, no matter how much the authorities ensure that end-to-end encryption makes the work of security services difficult. That even if it is so, end-to-end encryption is the least bad solution to protect privacy.
But the authorities have not wanted to get off the bandwagon, and they have spent about six years with the idea that it is possible to spy on people, but without letting cybercriminals do it. Of course, it is not possible to achieve it. But for now it seems that they do not see it that way. And not allowing mobile security updates of known vulnerabilities is very dangerous for the security of users and their information.
