Apple scans iCloud photos to check for child abuse

Palancar · Aug 30, 2021

I still maintain that you will only scoop up "idiots" with this method. Experienced users are going to be storing their files/pics in SECURE zero knowledge places. The thing is yes I would love to see pedo's caught. BUT not at the expense of having a system where "the man" can scan for anything/everything they want in a database. My online files, pics, and storage are secured via gpg on my devices and then transferred to zero knowledge cloud constructions. The zero knowledge should be good enough on its own, but being "tin foil" I also gpg encrypt the files before they even go into that system.

hawki · Sep 3, 2021

"Apple backs down on CSAM features, postpones launch

Following widespread criticism, Apple has announced that it will not be launching its child protection features as planned, and will instead 'take additional time' to consult...

'Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others...we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features'..."

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/09/03/apple-backs-down-on-csam-features-postpones-launch

Daveski17 · Sep 3, 2021

So, no 'Big Apple' 'Big Brother' for now? What could possibly go wrong?

Daveski17 · Sep 3, 2021

xxJackxx said: ↑

This is why they are pushing everyone to cloud services. So they can inspect your stuff at will in the name of catching criminals. False positives will result in some 3 letter agency kicking in your front door and dragging you out with all of your devices until you can prove it was a mistake.
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I wondered why Apple have been pushing the cloud so much recently.

xxJackxx · Sep 3, 2021

Daveski17 said: ↑

I wondered why Apple have been pushing the cloud so much recently.
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Well, that and money.

Daveski17 · Sep 3, 2021

xxJackxx said: ↑

Well, that and money.
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Well, of cour$e lol.

guest · Oct 17, 2021

Security Risks of Client-Side Scanning
October 15, 2021
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/10/security-risks-of-client-side-scanning.html

Even before Apple made its announcement, law enforcement shifted their battle for backdoors to client-side scanning. The idea is that they wouldn’t touch the cryptography, but instead eavesdrop on communications and systems before encryption or after decryption. It’s not a cryptographic backdoor, but it’s still a backdoor — and brings with it all the insecurities of a backdoor.
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I’m part of a group of cryptographers that has just published a paper discussing the security risks of such a system.
We had been working on the paper well before Apple’s announcement. And while we do talk about Apple’s system, our focus is really on the idea in general.

Ross Anderson wrote a blog post on the paper.
So did Susan Landau. And there’s press coverage in the New York Times, the Guardian, Computer Weekly, the Financial Times, Forbes, El Pais (English translation), NRK (English translation), and — this is the best article of them all — the Register. See also this analysis of the law and politics of client-side scanning from last year.
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guest · Nov 10, 2021

Researchers show that Apple’s CSAM scanning can be fooled easily
November 10, 2021
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...t-apple-s-csam-scanning-can-be-fooled-easily/

A team of researchers at the Imperial College in London have presented a simple method to evade detection by image content scanning mechanisms, such as Apple's CSAM.

CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) was a controversial proposal submitted by Apple earlier this year. The proposal was eventually retracted in September, following strong backlash from customers, advocacy groups, and researchers.
Apple hasn't abandoned CSAM but rather postponed its roll-out for 2022, promising new rounds of improvements and a more transparent approach in its development.
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However, the question that researchers at the Imperial College in London asked is, would such a detection system even work reliably in the first place?
Tricking the algorithm
The research presented at the recent USENIX Security Symposium by British researchers shows that neither Apple's CSAM nor any system of this type would effectively detect illegal material.

As the researchers explain, it’s possible to fool content detection algorithms 99.9% of the time without visually changing the images.
The trick is to apply a special hashing filter on the images, making them appear different to the detection algorithm even if the processed result looks identical to the human eye.
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guest · Aug 13, 2022

Apple Remains Silent About Plans to Detect Known CSAM Stored in iCloud Photos
August 13, 2022

It has now been over a year since Apple announced plans for three new child safety features, including a system to detect known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images stored in iCloud Photos, an option to blur sexually explicit photos in the Messages app, and child exploitation resources for Siri. The latter two features are now available, but Apple remains silent about its plans for the CSAM detection feature.

Apple initially said CSAM detection would be implemented in an update to iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 by the end of 2021, but the company ultimately postponed the feature based on "feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others."
In September 2021, Apple posted the following update to its Child Safety page:

Previously we announced plans for features intended to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them and to help limit the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material. Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.
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Apple said its CSAM detection system was "designed with user privacy in mind." The system would perform "on-device matching using a database of known CSAM image hashes" from child safety organizations, which Apple would transform into an "unreadable set of hashes that is securely stored on users' devices."

Apple planned to report iCloud accounts with known CSAM image hashes to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a non-profit organization that works in collaboration with U.S. law enforcement agencies.
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Apple's plans were criticized by a wide range of individuals and organizations, including security researchers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), politicians, policy groups, university researchers, and even some Apple employees.
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guest · Sep 3, 2022

Apple's CSAM detection system may not be perfect, but it is inevitable
By Andrew Orr @andrewornot - August 26, 2022

Over a year ago, Apple announced plans to scan for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) with the iOS 15.2 release. The technology is inevitable despite imperfections and silence about it.

Apple announced this scanning technology on August 5, 2021 to appear in iCloud Photos, iMessage, and Siri. These tools were designed to improve the safety of children on its platforms.
At the time, these tools would release within an update for watchOS, iOS, macOS, and iPadOS by the end of 2021. Apple has postponed since then, removing mention of CSAM detection in iCloud Photos and posting an update to its Child Safety page.
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Likely in response to the massive blowback from customers and researchers, in September 2021, Apple said that it would take additional time to collect input and make improvements before releasing its child safety features for iCloud Photos. It kept some initiatives going, and followed through with Messages and Siri.
Moving forward
And yet, Apple's implementation of CSAM detection in iCloud Photos is only a matter of time, simply because its system strikes a middle ground. Governments can't tell Apple to include terrorist content into the CSAM database.

The delay is only due to public outcry; Apple's mistake was in its initial messaging when announcing the feature, not with errors within the detection system.
Apple makes no secret of how it helps law enforcement when presented with a subpoena. Examples of information Apple can share include data from iCloud backups, mail stored on its servers, and sometimes text messages.
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Whether an iOS 16 update brings iCloud Photo scanning or not is unclear, but it will happen someday soon. After that, Apple customers will have to decide if they want to continue using iCloud — or move to an end-to-end alternative solution. Or, they can turn off iCloud Photos, as Apple assured everyone that the detection process only happens with its syncing service.
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