Apple recommends application developers to switch to HTTPS

Apple, one of the world’s most recognisable brands, recently announced that developers creating applications for iOS, should as soon as possible move their applications to HTTPS. Over the past few years, numerous corporations have made this transition - including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo. All of them have moved their web services to HTTPS by default. Switching to HTTPS  is a sign that large companies are more than ever concerned about the security and privacy of their  users. Switching to HTTPS accelerated from the moment when there were reports that the National Security Agency is carrying out data interception and surveillance. This information was published in 2013. The surveillance even involved  the US federal government. Tony Scott, the US federal CIO, announced that all federal agencies must shift their public sites and services onto  HTTPS by 31 December 2016.

Today, Apple is gradually moving in the same direction, and is encouraging all developers to move this way. Not so long ago there was a Worldwide Developer Conference, where  the new iOS9 operating system  was shown. At  the conference some changes were announced  that will appear in the new operating system. iOS 9 will  include the Application Transport Security, a protocol that allows developers to establish secure connections to certain domains from their applications.

According to the instructions from Apple, protocol App Transport Security (ATS) allows an application to add a declaration to the file Info.plist, which will contain the domains that require a secure connection. ATS allows you to prevent interception of data and to ensure a reliable connection. This protocol is very easy to adopt. ATS must be adopted very soon. Switching to the protocol can be performed both for a new and for an existing application.

At the moment, the use of ATS protocol is not mandatory. However, given  current trends, in particular the recent transition of Google Chrome from the algorithm SHA-1 to SHA-2, it is felt  that the ATS may become mandatory in the near future. At present  the company is merely encouraging  developers to ensure that they use ATS in all new , as well as existing, applications.

We advise you to use the most recent protocols, including the ATS protocol from Apple.