Apple is protecting its iMessage chat service against future attacks using quantum computers that could undermine its current encryption techniques.
Although it may be years before such attacks become possible, the iPhone manufacturer said at an announcement on Wednesday that action needed to be taken now.
Apple fears attackers could try to tap into large quantities of securely encrypted communication and try to crack the protection later. The new protocol, called PQ3, is designed to secure messages sent against such attacks.
Apple's iMessage and other chat apps such as Signal and WhatsApp use end-to-end encryption by default, where the content is only visible in plain text on the devices of the parties involved, but not for the service itself.
Cracking the encryption with today's tools would require too much resources. However, experts believe that in 10 to 15 years' time there could be computers with quantum technology that could be used to crack the algorithms quickly.
The new additional protection mechanism for the era of quantum computers includes a technique whereby new keys are frequently exchanged between devices.
Apple will introduce PQ3 with the next versions of the operating systems for its devices, such as iOS 17.4. The company says that iMessage will be the first messaging service with such far-reaching protection against future quantum attacks. Signal also recently announced it was working on measures to protect communication from similar attacks.
