Ride the Lightning

Apple Automatically Uploads iPhone Call Logs to iCloud Drive

November 22, 2016

It's not a bug – it's a feature. Right? Many Apple users were not happy to learn that researchers at the Russian proactive software firm Elcomsoft found that iPhones silently upload call logs to the iCloud. According to an SC Media report, Apple automatically uploads iPhone call logs to Apple's remote servers where the data may be stored for months with no option for the end user to entirely disable the feature on their device.

The feature is available on all devices running on iOS 9.x and 10.x and there is no official way to disable it other than to disable the iCloud Drive functionality. Elcomsoft says that disabling the feature would greatly affect the usability of the device since Apple delivers a number of features via iCloud Drive.

An individual's communication history can reveal a lot about a user life including sexual preferences, medical issues, infidelities, illegal activities, business dealings, and more, Tripwire Cybersecurity Researcher Craig Young told SC Media.

"Unlike the encryption employed on an iPhone's local memory storage, data stored within iCloud is encrypted in such a way that it can be retrieved with the assistance of Apple or through the use of an authentication token such as what might be stored on the device owner's computer," Young said. "A compromise of Apple's servers could therefore expose the data from a large number of users thereby enabling social engineering attacks as well as extortion schemes."

Not precisely the holiday gift we might have wanted from Apple!

Hat tip to my youngest daughter, Kim Haught, one of the many reasons I have cause to give thanks on Thanksgiving Day! Have a marvelous holiday everyone – I give thanks for all of you too – RTL will be back next week!

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