Chinese Experts Claim to Have Cracked AirDrop Encryption

In a significant development, Chinese state-backed experts claim to have cracked the encryption of Apple's AirDrop feature. This breakthrough, as reported by Bloomberg, enables the identification of phone numbers and email addresses of users, potentially allowing the Chinese government to monitor and suppress dissent more effectively.

AirDrop, a tool that allows Apple users to share content between devices without an internet connection, has been a crucial communication method for protesters in China, especially during the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. According to Business Insider, the Chinese government's move to decrypt AirDrop is seen as an effort to hunt down dissidents who have been using this feature to bypass online censorship.

The Beijing Wangshendongjian Judicial Appraisal Institute has used the breakthrough to reportedly develop a working tool to decrypt and trace anonymous AirDrops. This tool reportedly analyzes encrypted logs on a recipient's iPhone and deciphers the AirDrop sender’s phone numbers and email. The Chinese Judicial Bureau stated that this technique helped police "identify several suspects" behind “inappropriate” speech, although it is unclear if any arrests were made.

CBS News reported that the Beijing municipal government's justice bureau said the technique "cracked the tough technological problem of the transmission of inappropriate information with anonymous traceability via AirDrop." This method has reportedly raised the efficacy and accuracy of case detection and resolution, aiding the police in ascertaining several case suspects.

This development comes after Apple, in response to the use of AirDrop in spreading dissent, limited file-sharing for Chinese iPhone users in 2022. Ever since, the "receive from everyone” option automatically switches off after 10 minutes of use.

The use of AirDrop was notably prominent during the Hong Kong protests, where protesters used it to share protest literature and digital pamphlets, circumventing the heavily monitored and censored internet in mainland China and Hong Kong. The ability of Chinese authorities to crack AirDrop's encryption is a significant escalation in the government's efforts to control information flow and censor its populace.