Google Drive now backs up your iPhone; switching to Android has never been easier

By tech2 News Staff /  14 Dec 2016 , 14:01

Switching from an Android device to iPhone has always been easy. Google’s services are all available in the cloud, and if you’re switching platforms, that cloud goes with you.

The opposite has never been the case, however. Apple is fiercely protective of its own cloud platform and transferring contacts, files and photos from an iPhone to an Android device has always been a chore. Until now.

Today, Google has announced an update to Google Drive that will finally make this task easier. The feature, found within the Google Drive app on your iPhone, will let you upload your contacts, calendar and camera roll to Google Drive.

You can now restore this backup to an Android phone of your choosing.

Owing to iOS’ restrictions, backing up your music collection and files from non-Google apps is not possible yet, but it’s a start. As The Verge points out, however, you can plug your iPhone into a Google Pixel to transfer music and text.

The tool comes at a time when long-time Apple-fans are increasingly disillusioned by the company’s offerings. The iPhone 7 has received tremendous backlash for the removal of the much-loved and perfectly functional headphone jack, and also for its lack of innovation.

At the same time, smartphone makers are coming up with compelling, innovative flagships like the Google Pixel, the OnePlus 3 and the Xiaomi Mi Mix.

iPhone sales continue to decline while Android eats into Apple’s marketshare. If it wasn’t for Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, it’s conceivable that the situation would have been even worse for Apple.

Azure SQL Database Now Supports Backup Retention for 10 Years

 By Luke Jones - 

October 31, 2016 9:27 pm CET 

Microsoft announced that the backup retention of Azure SQL Database has been significantly increased. The service will also make automatic weekly backups of all databases.

Azure SQL Database now support up to 10 years of Backup Retention, says Microsoft. The announcement was made on the company’s official Azure blog. Principal Program Manager of Azure SQL Database, Alexander Noscov, said the change makes it easier for customers.

This ease of use means customers can enable long-term retention in a few clicks. With this new feature you can extend the retention period from 35 days to as much as 10 year. That’s quite a difference for sure. Azure SQL Database now also supports backups that are stored within the Azure Backup Service Vault.


To support data retention requirements, Azure SQL Database now backs up more often. Indeed, Microsoft says the service will create a full backup every week for each database.

In the blog post, Noscov explains how the backups work:

“Once you add the LTR policy to a database using Azure Portal or API, these weekly backups will be automatically copied to your own Azure Backup Service Vault. If your databases are encrypted with TDE, that’s no problem — the backups are automatically encrypted at rest.


The Services Vault will automatically delete your expired backups based on their timestamp, so there’s no need to manage the backup schedule or worry about the cleanup of the old files. The following diagram shows how to add LTR policy in the Portal.”
Azure SQL Database Temporal Tables

At the start of this month, Microsoft introduced Temporal Tables to Azure SQL Database. The service allows customers to track their data history easily. Some of the uses for these tables include:
Supporting data auditing in your applications
Analyzing trends or detect anomalies over time
Easily implementing slowly changing dimension pattern
Performing fine-grained row repairs in case of accidental data errors made by humans or applications

iOS 10 Vulnerability Makes Bruteforcing Backup Passwords Up To 2,500 Times Faster (Updated)

ElcomSoft, a Russian digital forensics and IT security firm, announced that it found a flaw in iOS 10’s backup password mechanism that allows its password cracking tools to bruteforce a password 2,500 times faster compared to when the old iOS 9 mechanism was being used.

iOS 10's Backup Password Mechanism Vulnerability

The firm said that Apple introduced a secondary password verification mechanism for local backups that existed in parallel to the old mechanism. However, the new system allows password-cracking tools to skip certain security checks, and thus bruteforce passwords 2,500 times faster.

The most modern password-cracking tools, including ElcomSoft’s own “Phone Breaker,” use GPU acceleration to bruteforce passwords. However, because the company has just learned about this iOS 10 flaw, it has only had time to update its tools for breaking passwords while using only the CPU. Even so, bruteforcing passwords on iOS 10 is still 40 times faster than bruteforcing them with GPUs on iOS 9.

Backup Passwords, An Easy Target

According to ElcomSoft, the reason its tools now try to focus on breaking the security of backups is because iOS has gotten increasingly more secure, and there are fewer and fewer ways to break into the system and extract its data. Backups remain the easiest vector for now.

Breaking the backup password also gives access to keychain data such as app passwords, authentication tokens, credit card information, Wi-Fi network information, and any other sensitive information that app developers may have thought needs to be stored securely.

Normally the keychain data is encrypted and the key is stored in the Secure Enclave, which can’t be easily hacked. According to ElcomSoft, even if you jailbreak a 64-bit iPhone, you can’t extract the key from the Secure Enclave. However, if you decrypt the backup password, you would be able to decrypt keychain data on a iOS 10 device.

Six Million Passwords Per Second

When testing the new bruteforcing method that takes advantage of iOS 10’s new backup password verification mechanism, ElcomSoft said that it achieved the following results:

• iOS 9 (CPU): 2,400 passwords per second (Intel i5)
• iOS 9 (GPU): 150,000 passwords per second (NVIDIA GTX 1080)
• iOS 10 (CPU): 6,000,000 passwords per second (Intel i5)

Despite the fact that a single dual core Intel Core i5 CPU was being used, ElcomSoft could still try six million passwords every second. If GPU acceleration would be enabled, it’s likely that the tool could bruteforce passwords even faster.

Updated, 9/23/2016, 2:35pm PT: Apple responded to our request for comment with the following statement:

"We're aware of an issue that affects the encryption strength for backups of devices on iOS 10 when backing up to iTunes on the Mac or PC," said an Apple spokesperson. 

"We are addressing this issue in an upcoming security update. This does not affect iCloud backups. We recommend users ensure their Mac or PC are protected with strong passwords and can only be accessed by authorized users. Additional security is also available with FileVault whole disk encryption," he added