Program the Internet of Things with Swift for iOS

Chapter    13

Using Keychain Services to Secure Data

Gheorghe Chesler

Although the iPhone boasts the lowest rate of security issues for a major computing platform, many developers only take advantage of a handful of these features. In this chapter, we will introduce Keychain Services, Apple’s security framework for encrypting notes, passwords, and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates at the system level.

At the core of modern encryption systems is the concept of public-key cryptography. Also known as “asymmetric” encryption, this mechanism allows the use of distinct keys for encryption, as opposed to decryption where you can use the public key only to encrypt and verify signatures, and you can use the private key only to decrypt content encrypted ...