The amendments to the Investigatory Powers Bill, allegedly intended to make people safer, will undoubtedly make UK digital infrastructure a tempting target as the regulations will be weaken security there. The biggest problem for Apple, other than the steady erosion of encryption, is that essential security and privacy updates might be delayed or never appear — and without any transparency or scrutiny at all.
If passed, the law would mean that every tech security update must be reviewed by UK authorities before release, which will immediately delay distribution of vital security patches.
Hackers will immediately see this means any patched vulnerabilities will be secured in the UK last, making the nation an incredibly attractive target to attack. Hackers are organized enough to spot and exploit weakness. It’s what they do.
And if the UK rejects an update, that update cannot be released in any other nation and the public would not be informed of the decision.
The UK has always had a very authoritarian streak.
People often think of this as a Tory problem, but it makes Labour jizz their pants just as much.