Apple is worried about leaving a "back door" to its paid servers
Many of Apple's services, such as music store iTunes, app store App Store and cloud service iCloud, have achieved great success. However, behind the success, there are also hidden worries.
Due to the huge demand for data storage, Apple is unable to build all the data centers it needs, and has to pay for other people's cloud services and servers.
However, it is concerned that these cloud services it pays for may have security risks. According to a report, many cloud service providers agree to set up a "back door" for government monitoring activities.
Apple has been using its competitors' cloud services, such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. It is reported that it is also using Google's (Weibo) cloud services. Meanwhile, Apple has planned to build more data centers to run its own services. Its plan is called "McQueen Plan". The goal of this plan is to reduce the dependence on competitors' cloud services.
In addition, Apple has also tried to design and build its own server like Google and Amazon, and is responsible for its own operation and management. Because it is very worried about security issues. It suspects that servers it purchased from other hardware manufacturers may be tampered with during transportation, and back doors may be set in them.
At one time, Apple even took photos of the server motherboard it used, and then wrote down each chip in detail to ensure that it knew each part well.
Some people believe that designing and building their own data center hardware is the easiest way to ensure that no one will touch them.
Apple has always attached great importance to the safety of its products. It would rather go to court with the FBI than meet their excessive requirements to help unlock the iPhones used by San Bernardino gunmen. Apple is worried that the FBI's approach may set a dangerous precedent and force it to weaken the security of iPhones and other products in the future. The FBI recently requested to cancel the court hearing because it found a way to unlock the iPhone without Apple's help.
