SolarWinds Orion hack - question about local backups

[jk73]

Don't know where else to ask this so posting here.

I'm seeing headlines all over about this SolarWinds Orion hack, which is apparently serious. No idea if Apple uses any of their products but apparently a huge number of telecom companies, etc., use them.

Whether for this incident or future data security problems, I'm hoping to confirm that 100% of my iCloud data is backed up when I perform local HD and iOS device backups—e.g., all contents of Address Book, Reminders, Notes, etc.

Is this the case or is some data iCloud-only? Thanks very much.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

When you perform a local backup, all of your personal data (that would also be covered by iCloud) is backed up.

Note that if you have iCloud Photos set to "Optimized iPhone Storage", then local backups will *NOT* contain your photos.

Also, I sincerely doubt Apple uses SolarWinds Orion, and if they did, the nature of the hack wouldn't impact SANs used to store the iCloud backup data itself. It may cause temporary outages of the public-facing side of things as systems are rush-patched/fixed, but it shouldn't impact the stored data.

 

[jk73]

When you perform a local backup, all of your personal data (that would also be covered by iCloud) is backed up.

Thanks for your fast reply.

Does this also apply to all files stored in iCloud Drive?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Yes. Files in iCloud Drive would almost assuredly be safe, even if access to them is temporarily interrupted (like any other random iCloud outage.)

Also, to fully reiterate, it is I would say 99.9% likely Apple is not impacted by this issue - it only infects Windows hosts. I *REALLY* doubt Apple is running Windows on any of their iCloud-hosting systems.

(I also doubt they're running macOS - they're probably running Linux; and I know that the Akamai caching servers are running a Linux.)

 

[jk73]

Great. Thanks very much.