Apple Denies Surveillance Claims Made By Russia's FSB - Slashdot

Posted by msmash

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  "Our software is full of gaping security holes, but we didn't put them there on purpose."

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  • Or maybe they did put them there on purpose, but there's no way to prove it. Plausible deniability is standard practice in spycraft. Only a handful of people at Apple would even know, and certainly not the dude writing their press release.

    I believe it as much as I believe when they say "We care about the environment", "We care about forced labor in our supply chain", or "We care about your privacy." So, not at all.

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      Upon closer inspection, they actually referenced "apple products", not "Apple products". We can rest assured knowing that all their cider and applesauce is backdoor-free.

      Posted from my â(TM)phone

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      No doubt. The "good guys" have backdoor access to any Android or iPhone.

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      Correct, it would be nice if people were actually well read into the history of war and mankind, the leaders of all states are obsessed with keeping tabs on everyone and everything. The world is at war even when it doesn't look like it is at war.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      We should assume our computers are backdoored.

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    No need for secret operatives, we want to make some changes to your software and if you mention any of this to anyone we'll charge you with treason - have a nice day.

• Recall that a decade ago Cisco equipment exports were intercepted by the NSA [infoworld.com] and backdoors were added.

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    More than that. NSL can come with a gag order that forbids Apple from revealing the fact that they complied with an NSL.

    Also, won't "insert a backdoor" doesn't mean they won't keep existing security holes unpatched. There are just too many ways to weasel around the statement even if it was not a NSL compelled lie.

• "Never take any speculation as being confirmed until a statement of denial about it is issued."

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    Or more simply, If Russia denies it, it's true.

• I wonder if the Russian wealthy are getting upset that they can not buy a new iPhone because of Sanctions ?
  
  So let's create FUD. Lets tell them they are being saved from the Nasty USA as the lead story rather than say the war is a disaster and the economy is tanking.
  
  I wonder if they have an agreement with China to have backdoors in the Chinese supplied phones heading to Russia so they can track who in the army is leaking all these bad news stories...
  
  Russia and honesty are poles apart.
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      I would bet a months paycheck that Russia’s not capable of domestically producing cellphones at scale. Not in any format that remotely resembles a current smartphone. They can barely even manage to manufacture small internal combustion engines. More likely, they will buy cheap Chinese-made android phones, which will be a) already compromised by the CCP and b) easily compromised by the NSA. The US has their finger on iPhones, no doubt about it. Nothing Uncle Sam or Tim Cook says will convince me otherw

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        There was a reason I put "domestically made" in quotes - they'll have that shit manufactured in China just like everyone else. And China will be happy to embed spyware into it, just like they (probably) do on all the other no-brand bullshit Android devices that get made.

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    I think you are very confused as to what the sanctions have done. The wealthy have absolutely no issues getting an iphone, the only thing that changed is they can't order it directly on the website. wife has god daughter in Moscow, she just purchased an Iphone 14 this week.
• Note that the statement says Apple never worked with any government to add a back door, NOT that Apple never added a back door. This statement would still be true if Apple worked on its own to add a back door and then gave info to the US government on how to access it. Why not say 'Apple has never added any back door to its products' and whenever a third party is able to create one through a vulnerability error Apple works to close it promptly. Unless Apple did add a back door.
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• Between the Belgorod People's Republic asking for help to claim its soverignty from Russia, to Ukraine's counteroffensive about to steamroll through the lines of untrained mobiks, Putin is deperately looking about for anyone or anything to blame for the stunning failure of his entire regime.

• The statement Apple made is true--they have never inserted a backdoor into their software. The way Apple designs software, what Russia's FSB likely thinks of as backdoors are I believe called iPortals, and the software architectural approach they use erects them FIRST, then cobbles the rest of the operating system together AROUND THEM. (They were going to call them iPanopticons but the name was too unwieldy.) So you see, what they said was true, from a certain point of view.
  
  Further, Apple does NOT co

• because [archive.is] they [theregister.com] do as [qz.com]
  they're [nypost.com] told. [npr.org]

• There was no need to add something they already created of their own volition?