{"id":42427,"date":"2021-09-13T10:10:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T10:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/?guid=268b55ae52dec769bf4a919202fd3dd1"},"modified":"2021-09-13T10:10:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T10:10:26","slug":"whatsapp-activates-end-to-end-encrypted-cloud-backups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/whatsapp-activates-end-to-end-encrypted-cloud-backups\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp activates end-to-end encrypted cloud backups"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Keumars Afifi-Sabet<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
13 Sep, 2021<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Facebook is launching end-to-end encryption protection for\u00a0WhatsApp<\/a>\u00a0users who want to back up their chat histories to the cloud.<\/p>\n

The firm has devised an entirely new system for\u00a0encryption key storage<\/a>\u00a0that means end-to-end encrypted backups will be protected with a randomly generated 64-character encryption key.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe firm’s two billion users will be able to benefit from this optional feature on their primary devices when\u00a0it launches in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, in order to safeguard the privacy of people\u2019s messages, WhatsApp has provided end-to-end encryption by default \u200b\u200bso messages can be seen only by the sender and recipient, and no one in between,\u201d said WhatsApp software engineer managers, Slavik Krassovsky and Gabriel Cadden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we\u2019re planning to give people the option to protect their WhatsApp backups using end-to-end encryption as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can already back up their WhatsApp message history via cloud-based services like Google Drive and iCloud. WhatsApp does not have access to these backups, and they are secured by the individual cloud-based storage services. But now, if people choose to enable end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) backups once available, neither WhatsApp nor the backup service provider will be able to access their backup or their backup encryption key.\u201d<\/p>\n

All users can activate this\u00a0method of backup to secure their accounts either with the key directly, or with a user password. If users choose a password, the key is stored in a Backup Key Vault that\u2019s built on a component called a hardware security module (HSM).\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the owner needs to access their backup, they can access it with the encryption key, or use their password to retrieve their key from the HSM-based vault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vault enforces password verification<\/a>\u00a0and permanently disables the key after a number of failed attempts, however, meaning the backup will be lost forever. WhatsApp itself will only know that a key is being stored in the vault, and not what the key is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WhatsApp isn\u2019t the first company to enforce end-to-end encrypted backups, with Apple enforcing encryption on\u00a0iCloud<\/a>\u00a0backups.<\/p>\n

However, the fact Facebook\u2019s messaging service has expanded the level of encryption it uses on its service will likely anger law enforcement agencies across the world which have\u00a0railed against the technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Five Eyes nations of English-speaking countries, for example, have time after time asked for tech companies to water down or undermine the application of end-to-end encryption in their services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group, for example,\u00a0handed tech giants an \u2018ultimatum\u2019 in September 2018<\/a>\u00a0to voluntarily insert a backdoor for law enforcement into their platforms. They have followed this up with repeated calls for a backdoor, and in October 2020, again,\u00a0urged companies to implement a backdoor by-design into their services<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keumars Afifi-Sabet<\/p>\n

13 Sep, 2021 <\/p>\n

Facebook is launching end-to-end encryption protection for\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0users who want to back up their chat histories to the cloud.
\nThe firm has devised an entirely new system for\u00a0encryption…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42428,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42427\/revisions\/42428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}