Apple’s upcoming iOS 17.4 update adds a new security feature to iMessage that’s so futuristic that the attack strategy it’s protecting against hasn’t been developed yet. Once you download the next version of iOS, your iMessage chats will have an elevated level of encryption that Apple says can’t be broken into with quantum computers.
Quantum computing is a radically different form of processing relying on the peculiar physics laws of the ultrasmall. It’s still in its infancy, but if current progress is sustained, it’ll be able to run new algorithms that can crack conventional encryption. For that reason, security experts are concerned that malefactors will use it to peer into private communications, whether it’s you chatting with your friends or the military dispatching orders.
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Apple said that it hasn’t seen this kind of attack yet — no surprise, since quantum computers powerful enough remain years away — but wanted to future-proof its iMessage platform ahead of any quantum computing break-ins, which the security community expects is likely to happen in the coming decades.
That’s important because communications data intercepted today could be cracked eventually if quantum computers fulfill their promise.
Apple says that its new PQ3 Messaging Protocol, as it’s called, will protect your messages as they travel from one device to another just like the current method of end-to-end encryption. Consumers don’t have to do anything but download the latest version of iOS to get it, and PQ3 is coming to protect iMessage on Macs, iPads and Apple Watches in MacOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4 and WatchOS 10.4, respectively. Apple’s new visionOS for the Apple Vision Pro headset isn’t included in this initial release.
PQ3 is Apple’s first version of what the security industry calls post-quantum cryptography, which are algorithms designed for a future where quantum computing is commonplace. Privacy-focused chat app Signal announced last year that it…
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