iCloud Backups Security – How Secure Are Your iOS Backups

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Are iCloud backups encrypted, both when transmitted and stored?
Is it possible for someone at Apple to access any backup made to the data enter?

I have heard that when apps have been pulled from the app store they have also been removed iCloud backups, so if they can be modified by apple then surely they aren't stored securely?

I have a lot of my passwords for websites and apps saved, so I assume these are stored in the backups as well?

Best Answer

ArsTechnica just wrote a great piece on this.

A quick outtake:

The simple answer is that your data is at least as safe as it is when stored on any remote server, if not more so. All data is transferred to computers and mobile devices using secure sockets layer via WebDAV, IMAP, or HTTP. All data except e-mail and notes—more on that later—are stored and encrypted on disk on Apple's servers. And secure authentication tokens are created on mobile devices to retrieve information without constantly transmitting a password.

And backups are stored and transferred encrypted. As for an employee being able to access a backup, only an Apple employee would be able to correctly answer that.

If an App was pulled from the store, they may not need to actually go into your backup to remove it. All apps have a unique identifier, and if anything they can just delete that backup for everyone (think of the backups being stored individually rather than a big ZIP file if you will). Again, this is internal to Apple so no one can fully answer that part.

Finally, backups do include the Keychain, but this is also encrypted and the key is tied to the device that did the backup.

From various places I have read online, Apple meets or exceeds (more often the case) standard security procedures in this regard.

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