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U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

reuters.com

71–80 of 170 posts

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#71
post #52
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So because it adds a layer of security rather than 100% watertight perfection, it is bad?

Explain to me how it's useful for security? Because I can guarantee you it will be a giant time-and-money waster with plenty of arbitrary rules that do nothing for security. There's millions of apps and tons come out every year. This nation-wide 'unit' will have to be constantly 'measuring them for security'. This isn't going to accomplish much of anything. Either have a secure phone with pre-installed apps (ie, just…

It's a device issued by your employer.

It doesn't matter if it's a laptop or a phone, you should only be using it for work.

Technology is much cheaper than it was 20 years ago. If you're not willing to purchase your own phone or laptop to do what you personally want to do with a device, you're likely not good at budgeting or decision making.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#72
post #68
post #26

Why's "ban" needed? Government should have full control over government issued devices and only whitelisted modifications should be allowed. If it's not this way - someone at government should be held accountable for jeopardizing the security of the nation.

Because employees feel that they deserve to use Facebook and such on their government issued devices, and if you deny them their God given right, you are racist, sexist, and otherwise despicable person

Well... I guess I can understand they don't want to go around with two mobiles.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#73

Not surprising. For several days now TikTok has left the information of 700 million of their users available via an open S3 bucket. It is online now at this very moment and includes IDFAs from Apple as well as interestingly, although I bet American companies do this to, the MAC Addresses. This is significant because my understanding is that Apple rotates / randomizes the MAC address because those can be used to, quit…

Source? Also, will you post a source for your claim that ProtonMail is compromised? (I remember your username from a thread a few weeks ago)

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#74
post #62

What sort of vetting does Microsoft do on drivers written by manufacturers that ship with Windows?

Traditionally they have done testing for WHQL certification. It may make sense for them to do analysis or reversing in order to raise the bar. Or maybe change the design of the NT kernel to isolate device drivers better.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#75
post #68
post #26

Why's "ban" needed? Government should have full control over government issued devices and only whitelisted modifications should be allowed. If it's not this way - someone at government should be held accountable for jeopardizing the security of the nation.

Because employees feel that they deserve to use Facebook and such on their government issued devices, and if you deny them their God given right, you are racist, sexist, and otherwise despicable person

> Because employees feel that they deserve to use Facebook and such on their government issued devices

True, and contributes to the discussion by pointing out that morale is a tricky thing.

> if you deny them their God given right, you are racist, sexist, and otherwise despicable person

This is _at best_ hyperbole. It has no insights, adds nothing of intellectual interest to the conversation, and falsely equates "I'm not getting what I want" with "Accusing other people of being racist and/or sexist."

That last bit is not only way off-topic for this, but it's an ugly and false smear that drags the level of conversation into the mud.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#76

Doesn't matter, they have it on their personal phone. App security is so bad that you pretty much need to virtualize the phone and feed it fake sensor data. The whole idea of unrestricted network access is stupid.

A simple approach is to just ban personal phones while at work.

You can forward your number to a work phone while you're on duty, you don't need to carry a personal device with you.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#77
post #68
post #26

Why's "ban" needed? Government should have full control over government issued devices and only whitelisted modifications should be allowed. If it's not this way - someone at government should be held accountable for jeopardizing the security of the nation.

Because employees feel that they deserve to use Facebook and such on their government issued devices, and if you deny them their God given right, you are racist, sexist, and otherwise despicable person

I agree strong security protocols are necessary, but our soldiers abroad should be allowed to interact with their friends and family abroad in some capacity via social media. I think your comment is a little over the top.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#78
post #52
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So because it adds a layer of security rather than 100% watertight perfection, it is bad?

Explain to me how it's useful for security? Because I can guarantee you it will be a giant time-and-money waster with plenty of arbitrary rules that do nothing for security. There's millions of apps and tons come out every year. This nation-wide 'unit' will have to be constantly 'measuring them for security'. This isn't going to accomplish much of anything. Either have a secure phone with pre-installed apps (ie, just…

They are not going to evaluate every single app to see if it should be white-listed. I expect they have a short list under consideration.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#79
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point, we'll get the Navy right on that.

The point is that if you argue a soldier shouldn't have Target or Amazon on their phone, it's pointless, as they still have Safari or Chrome.

I'm not sure that's a complete argument.

If you're arguing that soldiers shouldn't do business with Target or Amazon on their mobile device, blocking an app won't get the job done, agreed.

But if the argument for blocking the app has to do with untrusted native code running on a device used for military purposes, the surface area of a browser is much smaller than the surface area of a plethora of native apps.

Re: U.S. Navy bans TikTok from government-issued mobile devices

#80
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be hilariously tragic if a major government official used twitter for communication.

I think they all do now. You have to engage with people where the people are.

I think it was a Trump joke.
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