iCloud And iPhone Photos Get Surprise New Security Protection From Today

There are, truth be told, few real surprises in the world of smartphone technology. Something that really does deserve the description is an announcement from the new Labour U.K. government that iCloud will effectively be considered critical national infrastructure and data within, such as the photos from your iPhone, given protection from cyber criminals as a result. There is, of course, a catch.

Boring Government Announcement Contains Surprising iPhone Security Twist

At first glance, the announcement published today by the U.K. Secretary of State for science, innovation and technology, Peter Kyle MP, is as dry and boring as you might expect from any official government policy posting. The subject matter in this case being the extension of security and outage protections under the critical national infrastructure designation to certain data centers. See, I told you it was boring. Vital for economic protection moving forward as ransomware actors and state-sponsored hackers alike look to disrupt the U.K. economy, yes. Boring, undoubtedly.

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Buried within the announcement, in fact it appears right at the bottom of the lengthy statement in the form of a notes to editors addition, is the fact that the designation of CNI will apply not only to the physical data centers referenced but also to “the cloud operators that use them to supply ordinary services like iCloud on your iPhone, including companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google.”

The government statement says that Department for Science, Innovation and Technology data centers power the economy and will get CNI designation from today, Sept. 12. This is understandable, and in my opinion long overdue as the criminal hackers that act as initial access affiliates installing ransomware on behalf of the organised criminal operators behind the cybersecurity scourge make no bones about hitting targets with data that include finance and even healthcare such as NHS associates. The U.K. is currently home to the highest number of data centers in Western Europe, according to the annoucnement. Which means that there’s going to be a lot of personal storage caught up under the same protective umbrella.

Smartphone Photos Now Get CNI Designated Protection If You’re In The U.K.

The fact that it has also made a point of stating personal smartphone data will also be made safer from attack, is not what I was expecting although it does make perfect sense. After all, data centres, the buildings that house much of the data generated on a daily basis in the U.K., store far more than just government, utility and finance information. They also store all the data that we generate in our personal and business lives, be that from laptop spreadsheets or smartphone camera apps. Indeed, the statement itself even references “photos taken on smartphones” as an example of such data. The catch is, if you haven’t worked it out yet, that this CNI designation is for data centres based in the U.K. only. However, because the designation also includes “the cloud operators that use them to supply ordinary services like iCloud on your iPhone,” it represents an important new security protection for U.K. smartphone users.

“Data centers are the engines of modern life, they power the digital economy and keep our most personal information safe, U.K. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said, “bringing data centres into the Critical National Infrastructure regime will allow better coordination and cooperation with the government against cyber criminals and unexpected events.”

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