Users of iPhones and iPads running on Apple's iOS 7 version or higher should be cautious before sending 'sensitive attachments' with the help of their devices.

The encryption for the 'email attachments' has been 'disabled' for iOS 7 and versions higher, according to a recent report by a security researcher Andreas Kurtz (via 9to5Mac). The users with the latest iOS 7.1.1 software version on their devices should also be worried about this issue.

Andreas Kurtz has already reported this problem to Apple and he got an acknowledgement from Apple stating that they are aware of this issue but a timeline for the fix was not given by the company.

Apple has been boasting that their iOS 7 provides encryption for email attachments and because of this many iPhone and iPad users have been sending very sensitive, personal and important files via emails under the presumption that their email is being encrypted, says 9to5Mac.

Here is a statement on Apple's claim about the much flaunted encryption (data protection) from their official support website - "Data protection is available for devices that offer hardware encryption, including iPhone 3GS and later, all iPad models, and iPod touch (3rd generation and later). Data protection enhances the built-in hardware encryption by protecting the hardware encryption keys with the passcode. This provides an additional layer of protection for the email messages attachments, and third-party applications."

It is worth noting that the protected data functionality (a.k.a encryption) of iOS 7 works, but it is not functioning for 'email attachments'. Kurtz verified this by testing with iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPhone 5s. Although, Kurtz reported this issue after the iOS 7.1.1′s release, his blog post did get the required traction to highlight the issue to the users.

Not encrypting the email attachment on iOS devices is a massive threat to corporations and government users of iOS devices. Looking at the seriousness of this issue, Apple is likely to fix this problem shortly.

When the website iMore contacted Apple, an Apple spokeswoman said, "We are aware of the issue and are working on a fix which we will deliver in a future software update."