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The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone

forbes.com

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

#131

Post by flueedo »

jonnybgood wrote: post #44
allochthon wrote: post #12

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…

I'm inclined to agree with you. It's a first world problem filled with hyperbole and misinformation by the individuals leading this fight. Frankly, I wouldn't trust anyone.

There's plenty of ocurrences of unlawful high tech surveillance and political persecution all over the third world too. More often than not even more problematic situations.

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

#132

Post by hobbes300 »

bandushrew wrote: post #109
RyanZAG wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Features - iCloud is just an extension of the stuff that was on iOS already. Previously you had preinstalled apps as part of the rom that could run in the background etc, and you had apps that you could download that ran sandboxed and had to have an icon, etc. iCloud allows direct access to the filesystem remotely. iCloud also now has routing support to assign you to different Apple servers, etc. All of these feature…

I am sorry, I dont think that makes much sense. Apple has had remote access to the file system forever - an early use of it was to remove apps that had certain kinds of legal issues from the phones of those who had purchased it. iCloud is simply remote file storage, and not all applications use it anyway - if the NSA wants access to my phone, achieving access to my iCloud account is a pretty poor second best.

Providing an XML feed that lists banned apps does not equate to remote file system access.

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

#133

Post by x0054 »

darkbot wrote: post #128
x0054 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone borne in the USSR, I am sad that Stalin lived to an old age and died without suffering. If there is hell, I hope he is in it right now. I would further never trust any statistics from the old USSR. For instance, the communists were able to dramatically "reduce" infant mortality by simply not recording births until the first birthday, when the child became one. If you think Stalin was good for USSR you are…

While this might be true, as a European I'm eternally thankful for USSR saving us from the claws of nazi tyranny.

Soviet people laid down their lives to win WWII, then, after WWII a lot more Soviet people lost their lives due to the tyrannical rule of a completely insane and evil man. I don't even want to dive into the pros and cons of communism. The only point I am making is that Stalin was an utterly evil fuck head.

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

#134

Post by StavrosK »

andreyf wrote: post #130
StavrosK wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/09/nsa-sabota...

Can you be a little more specific? Also, re: that article, is there any evidence that there are exploits placed by NSA or GHCQ that could be used by other adversaries? I hear this claim a lot, but haven't seen any evidence...

As far as I know, you're obliged not to divulge the fact that you're cooperating, including saying that you aren't if you're asked, if that's what you've been doing so far.

I don't think there's any evidence that someone has used an NSA backdoor, but, given how widespread exploits are, I wouldn't be surprised.

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

#135

Post by Theodores »

blub wrote: post #120
hershel wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stalin is a bad example. By forcing industrialization on the ussr, he has increased average life span of the population by something like 15 years ( measures in 1958) and enabled the ussr to defend itself against the Germany which saved countless lives, and increased living standards, education, female equality greatly. In his case, and the case of Chinese communism, it somewhat debatable whether a strong government…

Uh, Stalin is responsible for more suffering than possibly anyone in recent history. He probably killed more russian people than the german soldiers. His policies screwed up a significant part of the world for decades.

He also gave Communism a bad name, and, by proxy, Socialism. These systems of government did not have all of the answers, however we now have free market economics everywhere with anything vaguely socialist being absolutely taboo.

We have not a lot of diversity in government, government is nowadays about managing a country rather than anything ideological. Some diversity is better even if other systems are not how one would want to live.

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

#137

Post by tspiteri »

Theodores wrote: post #135
blub wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, Stalin is responsible for more suffering than possibly anyone in recent history. He probably killed more russian people than the german soldiers. His policies screwed up a significant part of the world for decades.

He also gave Communism a bad name, and, by proxy, Socialism. These systems of government did not have all of the answers, however we now have free market economics everywhere with anything vaguely socialist being absolutely taboo. We have not a lot of diversity in government, government is nowadays about managing a country rather than anything ideological. Some diversity is better even if other systems are not how on…

with anything vaguely socialist being absolutely taboo

This is not true, at least not in Europe. Most countries have some form of universal health care, and there are benefits for people who do not work, etc. That is more than vaguely socialist, and is definitely not taboo.

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

#138

Post by f_salmon »

alan_cx wrote: post #37
allochthon wrote: post #12

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…

I completely disagree, but I have voted you up. You represent normal people. Those of us who care are the weirdos. I've given up. Whats the point? Frankly, if I knew I needed actual privacy, I'd not use anything electronic, and go olde skool. That's all I need to know now. I've told everyone I know and / or care about. Its now up to them. Get used to it, Big Brother has been here for a while, is staying, and will get…

Of course you have the right to say these extremely depressive things.

But if this is really what you think, then you should not put any children on this planet - they don't deserve the mess you/we're about to accept/create for future generations.

On a brighter note: think about people like Applebaum, Snowden, Assange, Manning, etc. They fight and keep fighting. Each of them accepts that we have to sacrifice something personal/important to get back a life that is worth living. If they can, why can't you?

PS, if you feel depressed (many people do, especially with these horrible recent news), it might be a good idea to get a professional opinion on that, maybe there's more to it.

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

#139

Post by Nursie »

allochthon wrote: post #12

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…

So you're not concerned about the government themselves having a bad security record and leaking all the data they gather on you, either? (government leaks data all the time)

Or someone in government deciding to stalk you? (this has happened, within the NSA I believe, but certainly in other places)

Or someone deciding they dislike you and using your information to pursue frivolous legal action? (You never broke any law? Any law at all? How would you even know, there are so many and they're so vague!)

Beyond that, well I guess you just don't care about privacy. Me, I do. It's not somehow the right of a bunch of other people I don't know, with minimal to zero democratic oversight, to poke into my life just because they feel like it.

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

#140

Post by comex »

RyanZAG wrote: post #122
blub wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enterprise profiles offer complete control over an iPhone in iOS7, including bypassing password, installing apps and so on. In theory one needs to install a profile by hand, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to do it remotely with the right vulnerabilities. Some devices can come from the factory with an ID that auto-enrolls them with an EDM profile, including after OS reinstalls. I don't remember if Apple c…

Yes, definitely. This is what I was trying to get at - the idea that they still need exploits as other comments are talking about is incredibly unlikely. With things like iCloud, centralized device management, remotely installable admin certificates, google play services, etc. it is very unlikely that the NSA is even considering using any kind of exploit anymore. When the NSA wants to use your phone, you don't have t…

This is FUD. Do you have any evidence that iOS allows any Apple server to get some kind of full control without asking permission and without using an exploit? I suppose that if you are restoring from an iCloud backup and Apple has been convinced to allow the NSA to modify that backup, some kind of MDM stuff could be enabled, but this is limited and detectable. Otherwise, it may be possible, but you have not provided any evidence.
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