ICloud

iCloud is a suite of Apple services that run over the internet, including popular services like iCloud Photos, backups and Find My.

Incidents

Nude Photo Leaks

In August 2014, iCloud passwords were brute forced, enabling many celebrities to have their nudes leaked^[1]. Apple downplayed the event by denying any iCloud breach occurred^[2], but the root cause was still unaddressed by the next year^[3].

Hosting Data in Chinese Servers

In 2018, Apple moved Chinese users' data to be hosted in Chinese servers, a move said to grant the Chinese government access to"emails, photos, documents, contacts and locations" of Chinese users^[4]. While the data remains encrypted, the encryption keys were also moved to Chinese servers^[5]. Apple claims this only affects Chinese citizens living in mainland China, but provides no insight on how this distinction is made, or clarity on whether tourists visiting China will have their data uploaded to the Chinese servers^[6].

Disabling End to End Encryption in the UK

In February 2025, Apple disabled Advanced Data Protection for UK users following a government request to access encrypted data^[7].

References

[1] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak

[2] ttps://www.theverge.com/2014/9/2/6098107/apple-denies-icloud-breach-celebrity-nude-photo-hack

[3] ttps://www.ibtimes.co.uk/icloud-accounts-risk-brute-force-attack-hacker-exploits-painfully-obvious-password-flaw-1481623

[4] ttps://thehackernews.com/2021/05/how-apple-gave-chinese-government.html

[5] ttps://thehackernews.com/2021/05/how-apple-gave-chinese-government.html

[6] ttps://support.apple.com/en-us/111754

[7] ttps://www.zdnet.com/article/why-apples-disabling-of-icloud-encryption-in-the-uk-is-bad-news-for-everyone/

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