Live data from Hacker News

The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

forbes.com

21–30 of 212 posts

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#21
post #11

This is from a very old version of iOS (2007). We don't know if this is still true. Regardless, I can say for a fact that there are exploits for all cell phone platforms. iOS exploits are by far the hardest to find. An iOS remote execution 0day will easily fetch $250k. I've seen one go for $600k. For an Android remote exec 0day, you're looking at closer to $50k. Even if the NSA doesn't have these on hand, they can ce…

Why isn't Apple (or some other consumer group) in that market buying up the 0days? I want to see the price of 0days that compromise any longitudinal user information above $10 million. Idea: 0day markets are legalised [1]. Regulators require companies keep the average price of their 0days above a threshold or attach a warning to their product and marketing materials. This aligns the security interests of consumers wi…

Because then Apple would be promoting and adding money to a market it does not want developed and also probably engaging in illegal transactions.

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#22

Honestly, I don't really care. The NSA can read whatever they want of mine. I've heard the arguments about how you should care, even if you don't have anything to hide. And I find them persuasive on one level and simultaneously unengaging on another. By contrast, the parallels to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and living in a turnkey fascist state are most unpersuasive. The one argument against what I've written that…

Hey, can you post your email username/password here so we can all read your mail?

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#23

Honestly, I don't really care. The NSA can read whatever they want of mine. I've heard the arguments about how you should care, even if you don't have anything to hide. And I find them persuasive on one level and simultaneously unengaging on another. By contrast, the parallels to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and living in a turnkey fascist state are most unpersuasive. The one argument against what I've written that…

Your apathy has been duly noted. Thanks for taking the time, and keep on keeping on.

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#24

Honestly, I don't really care. The NSA can read whatever they want of mine. I've heard the arguments about how you should care, even if you don't have anything to hide. And I find them persuasive on one level and simultaneously unengaging on another. By contrast, the parallels to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and living in a turnkey fascist state are most unpersuasive. The one argument against what I've written that…

Fair enough. I do care. So, which of us matters more?

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#26

Honestly, I don't really care. The NSA can read whatever they want of mine. I've heard the arguments about how you should care, even if you don't have anything to hide. And I find them persuasive on one level and simultaneously unengaging on another. By contrast, the parallels to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and living in a turnkey fascist state are most unpersuasive. The one argument against what I've written that…

The protection from snooping government for law abiders isn't for humdrum people like you. It's for people working to make the world better who come under fire through no illegal activity of their own.

Did you know the FBI put MLK under surveillance at the orders of Bobby Kennedy (then-Attorney General)? They didn't find evidence of crimes, so they threatened to publicize his extramarital affair if he didn't give up his civil rights work.

It's about preventing unchecked government power over those who aren't criminals who are working against the status quo.

OF COURSE you don't care if the NSA reads your email. You don't change anything, and consequently don't matter.

We as a society care if the NSA reads the private emails of the next important up-and-coming political party leader who will break us out of the corporate-owned two-party system. THAT'S the person we're trying to protect, not boring uninspired people who "have nothing to hide".

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#27
post #11

This is from a very old version of iOS (2007). We don't know if this is still true. Regardless, I can say for a fact that there are exploits for all cell phone platforms. iOS exploits are by far the hardest to find. An iOS remote execution 0day will easily fetch $250k. I've seen one go for $600k. For an Android remote exec 0day, you're looking at closer to $50k. Even if the NSA doesn't have these on hand, they can ce…

Why isn't Apple (or some other consumer group) in that market buying up the 0days? I want to see the price of 0days that compromise any longitudinal user information above $10 million. Idea: 0day markets are legalised [1]. Regulators require companies keep the average price of their 0days above a threshold or attach a warning to their product and marketing materials. This aligns the security interests of consumers wi…

I like the idea. I would donate towards a more secure AOSP.

Unfortunately, no matter how much you sure up your phone's OS, there is still a massive, gaping hole in the form of the baseband processor. Until we have phones where the baseband is a tightly regulated slave processor, accessible only through a low-privelege mechanism (like a USB port), we can't really hope to have truly secure phones anyway.

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#28

So here is a complete anecdotal suspicion: I have had the iPhone since the first day of release. I have gone through 16 physical devices over that period (due to me breaking them a lot and going through several employers where I had never purchased my own phone since (well before) it was released). I am currently, for the first time in a long time, on my own personal device; an iPhone 4. I upgraded it to iOS7 when it…

I think they're on to you. Quick, hide the evidence.

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#29
post #26

Honestly, I don't really care. The NSA can read whatever they want of mine. I've heard the arguments about how you should care, even if you don't have anything to hide. And I find them persuasive on one level and simultaneously unengaging on another. By contrast, the parallels to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and living in a turnkey fascist state are most unpersuasive. The one argument against what I've written that…

The protection from snooping government for law abiders isn't for humdrum people like you. It's for people working to make the world better who come under fire through no illegal activity of their own. Did you know the FBI put MLK under surveillance at the orders of Bobby Kennedy (then-Attorney General)? They didn't find evidence of crimes, so they threatened to publicize his extramarital affair if he didn't give up…

Fuck Ya. Here Here. Sorry for the expletive, but you sure did nail it.

Re: The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

#30

Honestly, I don't really care. The NSA can read whatever they want of mine. I've heard the arguments about how you should care, even if you don't have anything to hide. And I find them persuasive on one level and simultaneously unengaging on another. By contrast, the parallels to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and living in a turnkey fascist state are most unpersuasive. The one argument against what I've written that…

Question is what if the data is misused ? At this rate, it's very easy to get who supports which politician etc. Democracy may become a sham. I don't know, everything mentioned in the movie "Enemy of the State" can come true.
Post reply on HN