Apple changes ‘state-backed’ hacking language months after India ‘pressure’

[Nerevarine]

*www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technolo...nths-after-india-pressure/article68053936.ece

Apple, Inc. is now calling “state-backed attackers” “mercenary” hackers in email alerts to affected customers, and has changed this language on support documentation on its website as well. This change from the iPhone maker comes months after a report of “pressure” from the Indian government to give authorities deniability for hacking attempts on political leaders, journalists and activists, who have repeatedly been alerted of unauthorised intrusions into their phones from spyware like Pegasus, which the Intelligence Bureau acquired in 2017.

The change, which now takes direct heat off of any individual nation-states following hacking attempts, coincided with media reports on Thursday morning claiming that a fresh batch of such notifications were sent to users in India and 91 other countries. However, hours after these reports came up, not a single user in any of these countries has publicly reported receiving such an alert. Last November, Apple and the Union government misleadingly claimed that users in 150 countries received such hacking alerts, when in fact only users in India reported receiving them that week.

 

[Desmond]

TBH if you are a (opposition) politician or journalist, just don't use an Android or iPhone. The fact that any state can hack your phones is just common knowledge at this point.

 

[Nerevarine]

TBH if you are a (opposition) politician or journalist, just don't use an Android or iPhone. The fact that any state can hack your phones is just common knowledge at this point.

feature phones arent intrinsically safe.

 

[billubakra]

feature phones arent intrinsically safe.

The nso can track any number in the world, yes any number in the world, in seconds.

 

[thetechfreak]

seems our PR govt doing PR again making apple such superficial wording haha

 

[RumbaMon19]

The nso can track any number in the world, yes any number in the world, in seconds

Make your own feature phone. Develop your own firmware. Make your own gsm chipset and write drivers for LCD/GSM/Camera yourself instead of using manufacturer provided RTOS ones to avoid backdoors. Perhaps make your own RTOS or customise FreeRTOS. You can also use buildroot or yocto to make your own embedded Linux from scratch. And in case you plan to do it, add RJ11 and RJ45 port also to the thickboi.

It actually won't take more than 2 months. If you manage to give like 8hrs everyday. Excluding shipping times.

I won't comment on the cost because I don't think any manufacturer is going to supply a single chip

 

[Desmond]

Make your own feature phone. Develop your own firmware. Make your own gsm chipset and write drivers for LCD/GSM/Camera yourself instead of using manufacturer provided RTOS ones to avoid backdoors. Perhaps make your own RTOS or customise FreeRTOS. You can also use buildroot or yocto to make your own embedded Linux from scratch. And in case you plan to do it, add RJ11 and RJ45 port also to the thickboi.

It actually won't take more than 2 months. If you manage to give like 8hrs everyday. Excluding shipping times.

I won't comment on the cost because I don't think any manufacturer is going to supply a single chip

Or use Fairphone.

 

[RumbaMon19]

Or use Fairphone.

I dont have control over hardware and software. What I want is hardware and software built from scratch up. A feature phone can actually be made atleast.

 

[RumbaMon19]

Do you guys feel a need for completely open source (Both Hardware and Software) Feature Phone? Feature Phone specifically to use it just for calling, Will be cheap to buy, and you can mod it like Nokia Phones in the god old days?

 

[Nerevarine]

Unfortunately, the solution is "political" and not "tech".

 

[thetechfreak]

Unfortunately, the solution is "political" and not "tech".

nope, happy with iOS/Apple. Or a de-googl'd Android will also do it.