[Cryptography] Signal planning no support for plaintext SMS

[Shironeko]

Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> writes:

> None of this is true. The iCloud backups of messages used to be cleartext a
> while back, but are now encrypted. Keys stored in iCloud are also encrypted and
> not accessible to Apple. (The system works so well that it fools you into
> thinking that it’s less secure than it is. For example, when you connect a new
> device to your iCloud account, you can download your stored keys. But before you
> can use them you need to provide the password used to encrypt them on one of
> your existing devices. They then get decrypted and re-encrypted using the new
> device’s password.)

Hear it from apple’s mouth, <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303> and see
heading “Messages in iCloud”

• For Messages in iCloud, if you have iCloud Backup turned on, your backup
• includes a copy of the key protecting your messages. This ensures you can
• recover your messages if you lose access to your Keychain and your trusted
• devices. When you turn off iCloud Backup, a new key is generated on your device
• to protect future messages and isn’t stored by Apple.