Apple made the Secure Enclave chips of older products more secure at the end of last year. This is striking, because normally previously released products are no longer updated.
Apple improves Secure Enclave: you should know this
The news came out via Twitter user Andrew Pantyukhin. Pantyukhin saw on Apple’s website that new information had suddenly been added to the Secure Enclave section. This section in your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch stores sensitive information, such as Face ID (facial recognition) and Apple Pay.
At the end of last year, Apple made this secure portion of the A12, A13, S4 and S5 chip even more secure. This means that all products released in the fall of 2020 are equipped with this:
- iPad 2020 (with A12 chip)
- Apple Watch SE (with S5 chip)
- HomePod mini (with S5 chip)
Remarkably, Apple did not release any new products with an A13 or S4 processor at the end of last year. The latter is in the Apple Watch Series 4 from 2018 and the A13 chip was last found in the iPhone SE, which was renewed at the beginning of 2020.
Products that appeared before but are still being produced do not have the extra secure Secure Enclave layer. This applies, for example, to the iPhone 11 and iPad mini 5 from 2019 and iPhone XR from 2018.
Improvements for Secure Enclave
How has the new Secure Enclave processor improved? An Apple document shows that the new variant can withstand so-called counter lootboxes. This sounds complicated, but the bottom line is that Apple products are more difficult to hack using GrayKey. These devices are used to break into Apple devices without needing the passcode.
Do you have an iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPad Air 2020 or Apple Watch Series 6? Then you don’t have to worry about anything. The extra secure processor is standard on devices with A14 chip (such as the iPhone 12 series) and S6 processor (in the latest Apple Watch).
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