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Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

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Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#241

Post by beagle3 »

boramalper wrote: post #65
hedora wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking around, you can get an A series or unlocked iPhone 13 new from a prepaid mvno for $0. A refurbished iPhone 13 is $300 on amazon, which is close to the cheapest M ($250). I can’t find new 13’s for sale except via budget carriers. (Sent from my 12 mini which is better than all that followed it: $200-ish for excellent condition, refurbished.)

> A refurbished iPhone 13 is $300 on amazon Is this Amazon US? Because even in Ireland, iPhone 16 costs 41% higher than in the US (979 EUR = 1,128 USD in Ireland vs 799 USD in the US).

Half of the difference is likely VAT, which is included in European listings but the similar US sales tax is more often NOT included in listings.

(Some US states have no sales tax, but most do)

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#242

Post by kragen »

Dah00n wrote: post #222
throw123xz wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a mistake to assume that a very capable country can't get into a network that uses Chinese equipment/software.

It's also a mistake to assume that a very capable country can't get into a network that uses US equipment/software... especially Cisco equipment with all the "forgotten" hardcoded logins. Iran is better off with Chinese equipment than American or Korean.

Nobody knows enough to say whether Iran is better off with Chinese equipment, because most of the intentional backdoors on every side of this struggle remain undiscovered by the other sides.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#243

Post by Zak »

makeitdouble wrote: post #20
akersten wrote: post #7

In my experience, Samsung is a label that means "stay far, far away." From the Galaxy Note fiasco to my microwave to my dishwasher to ... Probably at least three other products before I learned my lesson. I even refuse to buy QD-OLED monitors out of indignation that Samsung makes the panels. Maybe I'm alone but maybe one day we'll boycott lousy companies out of business.

> Galaxy Note fiasco Has any smartphone maker succeeded in getting more than a few percent of market share, released more that 2 phones while being immune to that level of fiasco ?

Yes. I have never been asked "do you have any weapons, explosives or [phone model]?" before boarding an airplane about any other phone, ever.

There have been other phones that had very occasional battery fires, but nothing on remotely the same level.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#244

Post by acdha »

grishka wrote: post #8

The "unremovable" part is inaccurate. While you can't completely remove it because it resides on the system partition, you most probably can still disable it with an adb command: adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name This command is very powerful as it works for any app, even those that have "disable" greyed out in the settings. I disabled the Galaxy Store on my S9 this way for example.

Samsung has an entire PR team who get paid to misrepresent things — you should at least get paid for what you’re doing. You’ve already admitted that it can’t be removed and if it takes some shell work you’re not even sure about to disable it, that almost certainly means it’s coming back on every update.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#245

Post by Zak »

ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #151
dgb23 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about PRISM? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM

Do Apple and Google have a choice to legally opt out of it?

Yes, by incorporating end-to-end encryption in their services.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#246

Post by weatherlite »

Atlas667 wrote: post #47

THEY WILL TARGET YOU too if you ever find yourself against western and/or Israeli interests. Capitalist technologies are the surveillance state incarnate. They must study people in order to manufacture consent. Remember democracy is majority rule, when have you ever had true control over your political destiny? You KNOW the answer is never. Democracy =/= trust. Democracy = control.

> THEY WILL TARGET YOU too if you ever find yourself against western and/or Israeli interests.

I guess you shouldn't find yourself against Western and/or Israeli interests then. It's time you learned to love Big Brother.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#247

Post by cam_l »

userbinator wrote: post #204
ignoramous wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verified Boot isn't merely to thwart Evil Maids, but by and large provide what's known as "Trusted Computing Base". And yes, given the proliferation of smartphones and the nature of sensitive applications built on top, most people, even if they don't realise it, need it.

but by and large provide what's known as "Trusted Computing Base". In other words, DRM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing#Criticism (I knew from the beginning that this was known as the Palladium project, and until recently, a search for "Palladium TCG" would find plenty of information about that history, yet now references to that group and its origins in DRM have seemingly disappeared from Google. Mak…

Are you saying that someone is using yugiyoh trading cards to cover up incriminating historical details of Microsoft's long term plan to purge general purpose computing from the world?

https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/593140/yugioh-quarter-cent...

Bizarre, I did find it on bing though..

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/rja14/tcpa-faq-1.0.html

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#248

Post by SirHumphrey »

boramalper wrote: post #184
mike_d wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suspect a strong link between mass surveillance [...] and the very recent targeting of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist and military officers at their homes in Iran. We all like to imagine this super cool clandestine hacking operation using peoples mobile phones to secretly track people who visit nuclear facilities back to their homes. The much more logical explanation is someone approached a low level employ…

Israel, like any other state, must be using a variety of methods including good old "human intelligence" so it's not either-or. In addition, saying that > someone approached a low level employee at the MEAF who turned over a USB stick with the governments org charts and payroll records in exchange for their kids getting a full ride to a prestigious foreign university is an oversimplification on multiple levels: 1. Lo…

> 1. Low-level employees typically don't have access to sensitive information.

You would think, but when I was interning (well, it was a paid internship) for a company, I was fixing an excel spreadsheet with payroll information for an entire department of a few hundred people. Not the best piece of "opsec", but when you are in a hurry (pay was due in a couple of days) and most people are on vacations "hey the junior kid can probably fix it, he seems fine" is a way too common approach. And it is fine - sometimes for a long time. Until it isn't.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#249

Post by ReptileMan »

Digital28 wrote: post #88
FilosofumRex wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all of Iran's cell network system was originally installed by S. Korean firms. They've changed some to Chinese brands, but apparently the compromised S. Korean brands are still around.

Changing from SK to CN is a trade from intentional vulnerability to unintentional vulnerability. I’ve yet to see a secure piece of software come out of China in my 30+ years of coding.

Supermicro IPMI comes to mind. If it was compromised we would have known by now.

Re: Samsung embeds IronSource spyware app on phones across WANA

#250

Post by angst »

Iolaum wrote: post #175

A user may not be able to uninstall it, but can they disable it?

1. Open Settings on your phone.

2. Scroll down and tap Apps.

3. Look for AppCloud in the list of apps. If it’s not visible, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and choose Show system apps to find it.

4. Once you’ve found AppCloud, tap it, and then tap Disable to stop it from running.

https://hackerdose.com/tips/remove-appcloud-from-samsung/#:~...

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