Apple’s iOS 10.2 Update Will Render iTunes Backups 1,000x More Difficult to Hack

Apple is no stranger to the concept of user security. In fact, the Silicon Valley tech-giant’s mobile operating system, iOS, is perhaps the most secure, commercially available platform the world has ever seen, and likely ever will — boasting a multitude of advanced security, encryption, and data recovery features intended to protect its users from potentially damaging attacks.

However, even despite the company’s broad, far-reaching attempts at locking down its iOS ecosystem, up until the release of iOS 10, Apple’s security measures have remained relatively unchanged — even despite the company’s recent fight against the FBI to maintain its independence from the prying eyes of the federal government.

Yet even despite all of that, according to a new report from iMazing, Apple has implemented even more security guarantors in its soon-to-be-released iOS 10.2 update. In addition to a slew of other new features, including revamped emojis (and a whole lot more of them), new wallpapers, and system-wide UI stability improvements, Apple’s forthcoming iOS 10.2 update will usher in the company’s most sweeping improvements in the security department to date.

How secure will these new tools be? Well, according to the iMazing report, Apple’s iOS 10.2 update will render encrypted iTunes backups of your iPhone or iPad a whopping 1,000+ times more difficult for adversaries to hack into. To put it another way, USB-connected iTunes backups of your iOS 10.2-running iPhone or iPad will require approximately 1,000 times more processing power to hack into than even iOS 10.1 backups.

The reason behind Apple’s dramatic overhauling in the security department with iOS 10.2 is largely due to a flaw that surfaced in the company’s original iOS 10 release, primarily having to do with how the software could theoretically allow “brute force attacks” perpetuated by ill-willed hackers trying to gain unauthorized access to your iOS devices.

Of course, the Cupertino-company was quick to address the password authentication/brute force attack issue with its iOS 10.1 update. However, having clearly learned from its mistakes in the original iOS 10 release, it’s perhaps of little surprise that Apple decided to make iOS 10.2 even more secure, revving up the iOS password protections, and thus, rendering your custom passwords nearly impossible to hack.

The second build of iOS 10.2 beta was recently seeded to developers and members of Apple’s public beta software testing program, with the final, public build expected to be released by the end of 2016. With these so called “brute force attacks” (attempts at hacking into your device by unknown, unauthorized 3rd parties) on the rise in recent years, it shouldn’t really surprise you that Apple has decided to double-down on its efforts to maintain iOS as the most secure mobile platform out there.

Are you looking forward to iOS 10.2’s improved security standards? Let us know in the comments!