Live data from Hacker News

China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

stocks.apple.com

131–140 of 150 posts

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#131
post #116

The question is, how many mutually disjoint digital domains will the planet eventually split into? Countries have their own everything (laws, regulations, money, taxes etc) given that this is how the world's political power is managed. Digital tech and information flow spread like if it is a universal something, but that is not how the worlds political power is managed. At most you might have coalitions of allies tha…

Humans are tribal by nature. Countries and borders exist precisely because we can't agree on the same set of laws, forms of government, and how society is structured. In that sense, an open and universal internet is an anomaly. It was a great thought experiment by hippie technophiles, and "connecting the world" is a commonly parroted platitude by social media executives, but humans are far from ready to interact with…

No, I don't think its too pessimistic. In fact the illusion of a global digital village lasts longer than what one might expect, probably because of tech illiteracy and the capture of various local elites.

But I also dont think that the hippy technofiles were all wrong.

Ironically, when you combine the finite Earth with extreme levels of digital information gathering and the zero cost of replication and transmission it is very hard to keep silos. E.g., pretty soon automated translation is a thing (and I am not an AI bro :-). Also you cant do much about joint dependencies on environmental deterioration without global coordination.

How its going to play out is unclear but the scenario of the same old clans fighting it out in the same old ways is not a given in the longer term. There are centripetal and centrifugal forces. For now the pattern seems to be tearing apart.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a distinction without a difference. I buy on Amazon, I pay on Amazon. They have a complicated supply chain with third party sellers, but it doesn't make them immune from import bans. Amazon third party sellers work like Ebay. You are suggesting that when you buy something off Ebay, it is Ebay the one selling you the stuff, which is clearly not true. You could find things on Amazon that aren't licensed to be s…

I’m getting second hand embarrassment watching you try win an argument you lost decisively 3 replies ago. Your comment: “Huawei hardware cannot be legally distributed or sold by US companies.” You were dead wrong. Just admit it, it’s not personal. “Does the fact that I bought it from an US website, mean that Sony is effectively selling this gadget in the US? Of course not, that's ridiculous.” You can’t be this naive.…

> Sanctioned companies selling through distributors has been around since sanctions.

Right. So you can illegally buy and sell stuff in the US. What a surprise.

> Your comment: “Huawei hardware cannot be legally distributed or sold by US companies.”

Yes, that was indeed my comment.

Because the FCC will not issue new licenses to Huawei, and Huawei cannot sell their hardware in the US without such licenses.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#133

This just seems like a logical reaction to unknown supply chain attacks. The DoD has restrictions on acquisition of Chinese hardware, for example. Some HN posters believe that this is a tit-for-tat move regarding the Huawei sales ban, which is hardly comparable, as Huawei hardware cannot be legally distributed or sold by US companies.

This restriction also comes on top (like July) of the recent kaspersky/Russian govt hack (called operation triangulation by kasp) where it is alleged that kaspersky's enterprise network was hacked after someone hacked their workers' iPhones and they puvoted to the enterprise network after the workers connected their iPhones to the work wifi. It's not a hard breadcrumb trail to follow and i am also aghast at so many H…

> This restriction also comes on top (like July) of the recent kaspersky/Russian govt hack (called operation triangulation by kasp)

Banning iPhones because of Kaspersky incompetence protecting their corporate network? That is nonsense.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a distinction without a difference. I buy on Amazon, I pay on Amazon. They have a complicated supply chain with third party sellers, but it doesn't make them immune from import bans. Amazon third party sellers work like Ebay. You are suggesting that when you buy something off Ebay, it is Ebay the one selling you the stuff, which is clearly not true. You could find things on Amazon that aren't licensed to be s…

I’m getting second hand embarrassment watching you try win an argument you lost decisively 3 replies ago. Your comment: “Huawei hardware cannot be legally distributed or sold by US companies.” You were dead wrong. Just admit it, it’s not personal. “Does the fact that I bought it from an US website, mean that Sony is effectively selling this gadget in the US? Of course not, that's ridiculous.” You can’t be this naive.…

Huh?

This FCC document clearly states exactly what it's banning:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-389524A1.pdf

https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist

"Telecommunications equipment produced by Huawei Technologies Company, including telecommunications or video surveillance services provided by such entity or using such equipment."

Phones are a part of telecommunications equipment.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#135
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve reached the limit of my personal experiences that I will be sharing. But, if you don’t know anyone in the offensive security space and still want to get some general feelings, perhaps you can start by looking into things like “Tesla CAN bus security,” “Tesla infotainment security,” and “Tesla NFC fob security.” Plus, here’s a heuristic for why they would have horrible security: they a are poorly built product wh…

"I wish you would use your expertise to share some knowledge instead of just shutting down the conversation."

I don’t think being unwilling to violate my agreements is shutting down the conversation at all.

I explicitly gave search terms you can use to gain some feelings about the subject and included a heuristic.

Frankly, I find your backhanded comment (that you dug into my comment history to find) obnoxious.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#136
post #2

“China’s restriction mirrors similar bans in the U.S. against Huawei Technologies as well as against officials using Chinese-owned TikTok”

But are the mirrored for the same reasons? If I'm not mistaken Isn't Tiktok famously misusing private data of its users? Which I believe was the reason for the US ban.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#137
post #108

My initial (unconfirmed) suspicion would be that the CCP has discovered the US is spying on their party members via Apple devices.

Isn't it more difficult to hack Apple devices than Android? Also, would Apple allow the US government to plant spyware on their devices sold in China? I also would more likely believe that China wants to monitor their own party members and thus, force them to use Android devices.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#138
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why do you think that? like sure, i suppose every nation dreams of being the top dog ruling the world, and China even has a realistic shot at it but i never got any 'we want to destroy the west' vibes from China

The best example of we want to destroy the west vibes is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBDuJBuKpQ

Destroy the West? More like copy it. It's a classic Chinese can't create original stuff so they copied Top Gun.

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This restriction also comes on top (like July) of the recent kaspersky/Russian govt hack (called operation triangulation by kasp) where it is alleged that kaspersky's enterprise network was hacked after someone hacked their workers' iPhones and they puvoted to the enterprise network after the workers connected their iPhones to the work wifi. It's not a hard breadcrumb trail to follow and i am also aghast at so many H…

> This restriction also comes on top (like July) of the recent kaspersky/Russian govt hack (called operation triangulation by kasp) Banning iPhones because of Kaspersky incompetence protecting their corporate network? That is nonsense.

It was much more than that. Russian government banned Iphones for government use as well. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-says-us-hacked...

Re: China Bans iPhone Use for Government Officials at Work

#140
post #2

“China’s restriction mirrors similar bans in the U.S. against Huawei Technologies as well as against officials using Chinese-owned TikTok”

It more closely resembles Russia's bans on Iphones due to security reasons. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-says-us-hacked...
Post reply on HN