Apple announced new features to improve cybersecurity protection for its customers, both consumers and businesses, including Security Keys, the ability to use third-party physical keys to Data protection on the iCloud platform.
“For users who opt-in, Security Key enhances Apple two-factor authentication by requiring hardware security key (opens in a new tab) one of two,” the company said in its announcement, noting that Security Keys will be made widely available in 2023.
“This takes our two-factor authentication even further, preventing even an advanced attacker from obtaining a user’s second factor in a phishing scam.”
Protect public figure
Apple says that while the feature can be used by anyone, it is designed with public figures in mind. After all, it is public figures, such as celebrities, journalists or government employees, that often face “coordinated threats to their online accounts”.
Talking to 9to5MacApple says the system integrates with the device-to-device transfer process, meaning that once a user authenticates their iPhone, they won’t need to do it again, even if they get a new device (as long as they don’t). is that they use the device for -device setup transfer process, it said).
In addition, trusted devices signed in to Apple IDs will not be signed out when users attempt to authenticate with the Security Key.
Don’t expect to buy new gadgets from Apple anytime soon, though, as Apple has confirmed it has no intention of building these hardware keys. Instead, it wants to introduce third-party partners.
Apple says there’s an urgent need for stronger security, citing a new research report titled “The Growing Threat to Consumer Data in the Cloud.” Stuart Madnick, professor emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the report says the total number of data breaches has more than tripled in less than a decade (2013 – 2021), with over a billion personal records exposed to the public by 2021, alone.
Through the: 9to5Mac (opens in a new tab)
