The United Kingdom government seems to have quietly cleaned the encryption tips from the government’s websites just weeks after seeking background access to coded data stored in Apple’s Cloud storage service, iCloud.
The change was observed by security expert Alec Muffet, who wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that the National Cyber Security Center in the UK (NCSC) no longer recommends that individuals with high risk use encryption to protect their sensitive information.
The NCSC in October published a document entitled “Internet Security Tips for Advocates, Lawyers and Legal Professionals”, which advised the use of encryption tools such as Advanced Data Advanced Data (ADP).
ADP allows users to activate the end to the end to the end for their iCloud copies, making it effectively impossible for anyone, including Apple and government authorities, to see data stored in iCloud.
URL waiting for the NCSC document now redirects to another site that does not mention encryption or ADP. Instead, it recommends that individuals at risk use the way Apple is blocking, an “extreme” safety tool that limits entry into certain functions and features.
Muffet reports that the original document, still accessible through Wayback, is “wholesale from the Internet”. Techcrunch was unable to find any advice for encryption on the UK government website.
The UK’s internal office and NCSC did not answer Techcrunch’s questions.
The removal of encryption tips comes a few weeks after the UK government secretly ordered Apple to build a background that would give the authorities access to the coded data of iCloud users.
After the order, first reported by the Washington Post, Apple withdrew its ADP feature in the UK, and confirmed to Techcrunch that the feature will no longer be made available to new UK users, and its current users will eventually have to disable it.
Apple is challenging the UK data entry order at the Court of Investigation Powers (IPT), Financial Times announced this week.
