UK quietly scrubs encryption advice from government websites | TechCrunch

The U.K. government appears to have quietly scrubbed encryption advice from government web pages, just weeks after demanding backdoor access to encrypted data stored on Apple’s cloud storage service, iCloud. 

The change was spotted by security expert Alec Muffet, who wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is no longer recommending that high-risk individuals use encryption to protect their sensitive information.

The NCSC in October published a document titled “Cybersecurity tips for barristers, solicitors & legal professionals,” that advised the use of encryption tools such as Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP). 

ADP allows users to turn on end-to-end encryption for their iCloud backups, effectively making it impossible for anyone, including Apple and government authorities, to view data stored on iCloud.

The URL hosting the NCSC document now redirects to a different page that makes no mention of encryption or ADP. Instead, it recommends that at-risk individuals use Apple’s Lockdown Mode, an “extreme” security tool that restricts access to certain functions and features.

Muffet reports that the original document, still accessible via the Wayback Machine, has been “wholesale deleted from the internet.” TechCrunch wasn’t able to find any encryption advice on the U.K. government’s website. 

The U.K. Home Office and NCSC did not respond to TechCrunch’s questions.

The removal of the encryption advice comes weeks after the U.K. government secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor that would give authorities access to users’ encrypted iCloud data.

Following the order, first reported by The Washington Post, Apple pulled its ADP feature in the U.K., and confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature will no longer be made available to new users in the U.K., and its current users would eventually need to disable it.

Apple is challenging the U.K.’s data access order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), The Financial Times reported this week.