Apple is a company that prides itself (a lot) on how secure and private its products are. However, although they put efforts into ensuring that they have systems and protocols that provide them with more protection, they are not perfect. Now Californians have gotten into a new mess in the United Kingdom, where they will have to adapt to a new regulation.
On the European continent, Apple is making many changes to adapt to the new laws that are being imposed. We have been aware of everything they do to comply with the new Digital Markets Law. However, on this occasion, the matter focuses on the United Kingdom’s own regulations regarding cybersecurity. The Cupertino company will have to put even more effort into being able to adjust to the new standards required of them. But, what is it about?
The United Kingdom wants to restrict third party access to private networks
When we connect to the Internet with our phone, whether it is an iPhone or not, we are doing so on private networks (for example, if we are at home and we connect to Wi-Fi). Although we are under our roof, we are not exempt from risk, since there are times when these can be broken, and unauthorized third parties can access our network and, therefore, our information.
This new regulation in the United Kingdom, precisely, wants to put an end to these unwanted accesses. And not only Apple will have to adhere to a series of inspections and changes: any company that sells or manufactures devices in the English-speaking territory will have to do the same. But what exactly is being asked for?
- Deleting predefined passwords
- Establish a clear protocol so that security vulnerabilities can be reported
- Provide more detailed information to consumers about the lifespan of product software (this also includes updates)
For the moment, the first steps that Apple will have to carry out in the United Kingdom will be the following:
- A complete inspection of whether the products sold in the country meet the new stipulated requirements
- Demonstrate that your devices meet a useful lifespan (in terms of software) that meets the needs of the law
- For customers, physical points of sale will have to provide cybersecurity information
Apple and passwords
One of the points that the law requires to change are default passwords. And here it is important to emphasize something very important: the passwords that Safari offers us to create are not default. They are random.
A default password is one that is offered to us by default, even before we create the password we want. In the case of Apple devices, the system offers us a random combination of characters that is never the same, neither on any device, nor on any website.
An example of a default password would be the following: we create an Apple account with our email. The company tells us that the password we are going to have to use the first time will be “seutencotuble.” They give us that code, which we will then have to use to log in.
Safari, on the other hand, detects that we are creating an account, and it is the processor that generates this key, which will then always be the same to log in.
