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- cross-posted to:
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‘security’ concerns, in quotes… Like they’re crazy. They’re not.
I don’t know too much about the relative security chops of different smartphones, however in terms of what’s actually in this article it seems reasonable for the government department to consider the iphone a security issue within the context where it presents this particular problem and for the reason why it presents that problem for them. However, it does also seem like the very reason this is a security concern in this more narrow context is arguably a better security option in almost every other context so I wonder if that’s what they were getting at with the scare quotes.
In the case of defence personnel entering secure locations they say the iphone represents a threat because it doesn’t allow 3rd party apps to control inherent functions of the device, so the defence force cannot use an app they developed which would presumably do things like disable all voice recording abilities so they can be sure that people walking around secure locations aren’t unknowingly or deliberately transmitting or recording conversations and sensitive information. I can see why this would be a problem for them, however if you don’t work in defence and are an average consumer, the fact that random 3rd party developers can not do exactly what such an app would be designed to prevent sounds like a more secure way to operate. In that scenario, apps are incapable of controlling inherent functions of the phone unless they’re developed by Apple. Obviously this leaves the door just as open for untrustworthy behaviour from Apple themselves, but if you’ve chosen to trust them, you can at least be sure that no one else is controlling your device in ways you wouldn’t want, unless the device is somehow hacked but in that case, well it really doesn’t matter which phone it is because somehow it’s security has been circumvented and at that point all bets are off.
scare quotes
They’re quotes, and they mean someone said it. Ya know, the basic purpose of those punctuation marks.
Yes, but in the context of the comment to which I’m replying, I say scare quotes because the commenter has interpreted editorial intent behind the choice of how and where the punctuation has been used beyond simply establishing that the word is a direct quote.
While I kind of disagree with what that intent is, hence my reply to them, I agree with the original commenter that there is reason to believe the quotation marks served more purpose in that headline than simple punctuation. As a quote, it’s an odd choice, given it’s a single word long, conveys nothing that the sentence without the marks couldn’t have said and used to complete a sentence that is otherwise entirely constructed by the author.
I and the person to which I replied have interpreted this choice as a form of editorial commentary upon the reasoning behind the policy being discussed in the article. In the original commenter’s case they’re taking it to mean that the article’s author thinks the premise of iphones having security problems is so absurd that the people claiming such must be crazy (which the commenter obviously does not agree with). I don’t take from it such an extreme implication, although I do read some kind of implied commentary and given that this security concern has nuance to it that a headline would struggle to convey, I have suggested perhaps that that punctuation is serving to subvert or undermine the supposed security concern in some way. When that writing technique is employed, the punctuation is referred to as scare quotes.
Or you know, we’re just reading tea leaves and it’s just a one word quote, but there’s the rationale for you at least so you know why I chose that term specifically.
Makes perfect sense to switch all Korean military to the in-house built ruggerized Samsung Galaxy S24.
An iED?
Shitty headline. Their concern is that there’s no way for a 3rd party app to disable the mic on iPhones. They’re not worried about iOS being insecure, just that if someone wanted to use one to record sensitive conversations, there’s no way they can stop that happening.
I’m surprised microphone and camera privileges aren’t part of any device management software.
Funnily enough, it’s because of Apple’s approach to security. There’s no API available for 3rd party software to use because if there was, some asshole would find a way to abuse it.
The headline is technically correct. They are worried over iPhones being used in a manner that affects the security of the military base.
It’s clickbait. People will be clicking to see if there’s been a new vulnerability discovered. The writer knew exactly what they were doing.
That’s also possible, considering the quotes around the word security.
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IIRC they added the album to everyone’s iTunes accounts without asking, I guess if a user had automatic downloads enabled they would’ve downloaded it without giving permission. It was a dick move.
They can’t “push whatever they want” though.
This sounds a lot like security concerns to me.
I didn’t think you understand how the military views security. It is not the same way you or I do.
The issue isn’t with the military, it’s with the clickbaity journalism.
The sources, a group of ranking officers who wished to speak on condition of anonymity, said that the Air Force headquarters released an internal announcement on the military’s intranet server on April 11, instructing a complete prohibition on any device capable of voice recording and which does not permit third-party apps to control inherent functions, effective June 1, with iPhones cited as items subject to the ban.
Also
The devices set to be prohibited include all types of smartwatches and wearable devices as well.
I’m surprised they weren’t already restricting most personal electronics in sensitive spaces. That’s pretty basic stuff
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The only security chops Apples has is that one time they refused to open one of their phones for law enforcement.
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Why am I not surprised.
the fbi had to pay a third party shop a million bucks to desolder the nand and copy it so they could try every combination of passcodes to get… no useful data.
it’s not optics when your device security requires that degree of technical skill and manpower to defeat.
almost a decade ago.
and you see the attack vector and take steps to mitigate it.
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Apple was identified as a participant in PRISM three years after google was and five years after Microsoft. Their cloud service (what PRISM refers specifically to) can be protected from that program by enabling Advanced Data Protection (capitalized here to indicate that such a generic name has specific meaning).
Lifelog was officially cancelled in 2004, three years before the iPhone was released.
I’m not sure how the email spam filter project honeypot is related to what we’re talking about.
What are we talking about? I replied to your comment about how apple not giving a backdoor to the fbi for the San Bernardino shooters phone was optics and not a real commitment to security.
I truly see their response as more than simply optics considering it took a one million dollar physical compromise to defeat the phones lock and apple responded to the agency’s success by moving to a system for device encryption that mitigated that hardware attack vector.
E: lifelong -> lifelog. Thanks autocorrect
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Would you mind pointing me to the smartphone guide?
It’s not a paranoia measuring contest, but I’m decently noided out as well and was never able to find conclusive links between lifelog and Facebook aside from some insanely dubious coincidences. Even the tla -> Facebook pipeline shows all the signs of simply being administrative and security state assets revolving dooring into the private sector a-la iraq 2 just like they freely move from positions within the agencies of one administration or another to the rest of aang.
I welcome new to me information though…
I’m no fan of cloudflares dns, but the bot aimed project honeypot never bugged me. It always seemed as benign as a function of a group that makes money off internet shit running “good” (whatever that means) can be. Feel free to pill me on cloudflare though.
As you correctly guessed, I do own and use Apple devices, and have developed for them. I am familiar with the way the do not track system works, and it is, as the article you linked states, possible to send and receive tracking data through channels outside of it. I actually used to use lockdown privacy, the program from the authors of that study, but switched to a dns blocker.
It’s worth noting that since att was added to ios the line was publicly that trackers would be slowly pushed out. I noticed this myself when using lockdown privacy. Over time it would block fewer and fewer trackers not because they weren’t there, but because the ways apps were allowed to classify their data would narrow.
I’d love to see the same people do that study now. Realizing I could be fine with a simple dns blocker was why I stopped using their product!
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Optics at the cost of about a million dollars apparently
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