[David_bl1]

"Smartphone users can do "very little" to stop security services getting "total control" over their devices, US whistleblower Edward Snowden has said."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34444233

To me this sounds more like fantasy than reality... I find it hard to believe that the security services would be able to hide such an application in IOS or especially open source Android without someone spotting it, or to persuade the operators to pre-load it on every phone without anyone knowing.

Of course if anyone says "show me the evidence" Snowden's response will be: "I can't, because the software has a self-protection tools that hides itself"... right!

There are surveillance tools that do lots of interesting things, but I very much doubt they are pre-loaded onto every smartphone manufactured.

[d123]

And yet the FBI can't even read iMessages, even with a court order.

Quote:

Apple has rebuffed a court order to hand over in real time texts sent using iMessage between two iPhones because its encryption system leaves the company unable to comply.

The order was obtained by the US Department of Justice during an investigation over the summer involving guns and drugs, according to a report in the New York Times, and represents the first known direct face-off between the government and Apple over encryption.

The two have been fighting a proxy war for almost a year now. The US government, led by the FBI, has been making increasingly strident calls for technology companies to stop providing ubiquitous encryption to customers, arguing that the tools harm the American people by making it harder to catch terrorists, paedophiles and other criminals.

In September 2014, the director of the FBI, James Comey, specifically criticised Apple’s decision to enable “end-to-end” encryption in its then-new mobile operating system, iOS8, which is what prevents the company from reading its users’ messages

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...essage-justice

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David_bl1

To me this sounds more like fantasy than reality...

Not to me, they'll just use the vulnerabilities that aren't patched. Those people running Jailbroken iOS devices, or any Android vulnerable to stagefright and not patched (ie most) - any exploit that gives you "root" and you can hide your tracks.

Pretty similar to how 'hackers' get into desktop/laptop computers, have a google on "Zero Day" vulnerabilities. This is why many people are concerned that Google hasn't fixed the problem of updates on Android.

Of course if Governments are doing it, the bad guys are also doing it, and they WILL use your credit card number and defraud you. Think organised crime, not bored students.

[swordman]

Does anyone actually believe any technology is safe from the security services should they wish to access it. Your only security comes from them not being interested in you.. You hope

[gomezz]

If I was a black hat I would keep my smartphone to use for my normal run of the day hum drum life and use a cheapo basic phone with cash bought PAYG SIMs for my nefarious activities.

[alanwarwic]

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...rdensome.shtml

"Comey continues to insist encryption can be safely backdoored. He claims the real issue is companies like Apple and Google, who hire tons of "smart people" but won't put them to work solving his "going dark" problem for him. As pretty much the entirety of the tech community has pointed out, holes in encryption are holes in encryption and cannot ever be law enforcement-only"

The main problem is that info travels further and faster these days. Many of the back doors, while obviously neccessary, at least to me, now get found out too fast.

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanwarwic

[url]"Comey continues to insist encryption can be safely backdoored.

Comey is an idiot and ignoring acknowledged experts on the topic is usually the route to failure.

viz:
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/97690

[jonmorris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David_bl1

To me this sounds more like fantasy than reality...

I think a lot of what he said early on was true as it was material he had access to and stole. Now he's an exile who presumably wants to remain 'current' and has started to say things that are definitely more fantasy than reality.

I mean, of course there could be hidden software on devices to allow outside access, but I also think it would be found quite quickly these days.

Still, how can you prove him wrong and he's got this reputation as someone who knows everything keys Governments are doing. Conspiracy theorists certainly believe anything he says, and I believe it can be quite lucrative to 'sell' theories to a lot of people that want to assume everyone in authority is corrupt.

It's not the first thing he's said that I've thought was, well, bo**ocks. But he gets the media attention, and it might allow him to stay where he is a little longer before someone starts to think he's outstayed his welcome.

I do also wonder if Russia wants to use him to try and undermine the foreign powers, by turning their people against them. Might explain why Snowden was apparently so keen to talk to the Chinese and Russians, who I am sure would be almost very likely to be doing all of the things he's 'revealing' and more.