How the NSA Gets Into Your Smartphones

[Guest]

BlackBerry is now CrackedBerry, and Apple is surprisingly secure, according to new NSA leaks as reported by German magazine Der Spiegel.

How the NSA Gets Into Your Smartphones : Read more

 

[firefoxx04]

What is the deal with the NSA scare articles lately? If you people are suprised by any of this crap then you are years behind.

No one is looking to get into your phone, computer, bla bla bla unless you have something to hide. Anyone with any sensitive data has it encrypted onto a drive that isnt even plugged into a network. Cant hack into something that isnt plugged in.

 

[_Bruce_]

"... even BlackBerry, which was once thought to be uncrackable."

Not by anyone with half a brain. Did they even try to claim this? Who 'once thought' this anyway?

"It's no surprise that Android devices are vulnerable — the same open-source policies and lack of security software that make Android devices a prime target for malware also make them easily susceptible to surveillance."

That idea that open source is insecure is pure FUD. There is nothing to back this claim up at all. Furthermore what does 'lack of security software' even mean? Security is a part of the existing software, extra software is not required for a secure system.

The problem with Android, above all others, is still that vendors do not issue updates.

 

[_Bruce_]

Also, perhaps the title should be "We Do Not Know How the NSA Gets Into Your Smarphones"

 

[sonofliberty08]

Apple takes full control of your iPhone...... that means the Government can take full control of your iPhone too

 

[_Bruce_]

otacon72 :
"Android is known to have security holes"

Yes and they are known to be fixed. As with every other OS in existance. Only question is how many unknown issues are in the closed source OSs?

"which is astonishing to me because Android is based off of Linux which is a very secure OS."

How is Linux any more or less secure than Android? They both regularly have exploits found, and fixed. Again, just like every other OS.

"Unless BB gives you the keys to the server you're not breaking elliptic curve cryptography."

The comment wasn't about breaking the theoteritc cyptography it was about BlackBerry being uncrackable. There are tons of methods to crack a device that affect the implementation of the security rather than the concept itself.

 

[_Bruce_]

Additionally my comments where not that Android is great, but that being open source is not a problem for security, which you seem to back up with your position on Linux anyway. And that anyone ever stating that any security can't be cracked needs their head examined.

 

[chowmein]

@firefoxx04

These articles are coming because it is from documented evidenced leaked by the NSA whistleblower. The documents have provided direct evidence as to how far these capabilities go.

On your second point, and this goes for anyone in the "nothing to hide" crowd. This doesn't work out in practice. There are literally 10s of thousands of government employees, contractors and military professionals that have access to these systems and information. The leaks have shown there is no effective auditing or oversight in place (any sysadmin can create an account at any time and impersonate a 4 star general). The amount of people involved makes it an almost certainty that this information can fall into the hands of spies, people who have taken bribes, people who are working for criminal groups etc. Additionally, these systems are internet-connected and are a prime target for any attack to get access to huge quantities of very interesting information. Finally, this information can be used by any of those 10s of thousands of people to blackmail anyone who is in a position of power such as politicians, business owners, foreign diplomats etc.

For the "nothing to hide" crowd. Ask yourself, do you trust 100,000 people with various personalities, motivations and intent to have access to all of your email, photos, conversations, bank accounts, phone calls and political donations?

Do you trust them to have this information about the rest of your family as well?

 

[Bloob]

Seeing how silent Apple has been during all this (seeing how they, like other companies, are prone to shouting out the faults of others), I'd actually think they are willingly working together with NSA.

 

[milktea]

What I'm waiting for is the breaking news on identifying spies in those Google, Apple, MS, BB, etc.
Let the men/women hunt begin in those large corps...

 

[cats_Paw]

Am i Getting this right? Apple more secure than blackberry? And next they are going to say that hamburgers from McDonalds are healthier than salad.

Personally, i dont care about any of this.
First of all, i dont have a smartphone (seems like beeing outdated pays off sometimes), and second, if I was hiding something, it would be on an offline only device.

 

[Repelsteeltje]

@firefoxx04:

Nothing to hide? Then give me access to your email box, regular mail, phone network ID and all your social media accounts. Also give me access to your medical and banking records. I hope you don't mind me listening in on your discussions with your wife, either electronically or in person, sitting in between you two. Let me see your pictures. I also hope you don't own any illegal software, music or other media files, including Youtube videos in your browser cache; no unpaid pornography, and no pornography – not even a thumbnail or spam banner – that might have a teenager in it, whether you know it or not; and I hope you never discussed strong disapproval with the government, evading taxes, traffic violations, drugs or who ought to get their ass kicked.

If someone has access to everything you ever said, wrote or even merily suggested, it's going to be trivial to come up with a crime you're guilty of.

The government is the servant of the people, and has no business invading their lives.

Besides, even if you'd keep confidential data on an external disk, you're going to have to plug it in sometime to read its contents – not mentioning the physical disk itself can be confiscated.

My point being, there is no way to safeguard your private data against the goverment, apart from the principle that it should not have the right to get that data in the first place. If you accept that they do have that right to obtain all that data and accept that they are actively trying to, you've lost. "Nothing to hide" is a straw man. People have a right to their own private lives without having to assert not being a terrorist or criminal.

 

[nitrium]

"No one is looking to get into your phone, computer, bla bla bla unless you have something to hide."

This is an incredibly naive statement. While you may have "nothing to hide" from this particular government, are you so sure you will have "nothing to hide" from future governments (given that ALL your data will be stored in perpetuity). What did the Jews have to hide from the Hitler German government? Nothing, right? Oh wait.
The fact the likes of Hitler have ever existed, means the chances of such a government are in fact FINITE, which means we are all 100% guaranteed to get such a government at some stage. When? Who knows, but do you want to give THAT government ALL your information? Yeah, nah.

 

[pjmelect]

Its not just those who are terrorist or criminals that need to worry, the NSA has been known to carry out industrial espionage on the behalf of American firms.

 

[mkatkat]

It seems that most casual Internet users have taken online privacy and security for granted until now. And from what I've read on http/vpnexpress.net, it is mostly because they trust online services to guard their data and because they can't imagine anyone would be interested in their data. But this is not true, apparently, and regardless, people simply don't like to be observed.

 

[ddpruitt]

These articles are coming because it is from documented evidenced leaked by the NSA whistleblower. The documents have provided direct evidence as to how far these capabilities go.

This "documented" evidence has already shown to be full of inaccuracies (like the fact that the WPs and Guardian identical presentations were different) and have only been used to write more sensational articles with no useful information like this one (smartphones have security flaws? big deal). Until I have some real information I really don't believe what either side is saying.

 

[byte_my_bits]

Is the article mis-titled, or is the author just a f**king moron?

At no point does it answer its own question, ffs.

 

[somebodyspecial]

"but if the agency has actually managed to crack the advanced "elliptic curve cryptography" that BlackBerry devices employ, the NSA's cryptography capabilities are far more extensive than was previously suspected. "

Followed by ""That's very unlikely," security expert Nadim Kobeissi"

I'm no longer reading NSA articles at toms. You are wasting my time for hits. All of your articles say there is no proof of anything, so don't bother reading again

Article should be titled how the NSA does nothing yet and we're about to waste your time again.

 

[sundragon]

Love how when the security whistleblower says that NSA deems Android as easy and Apple/BBerry is difficult, you fan boys still create a Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field and state otherwise.
Until Google updates it's core OS independently of the manufacturers and carriers, it will still be the leas secure. If every Linux disto and Windows that run on far more platforms than all of Android hardware put together, there's no reason for Google to let this continue into Android 5.0 unless they simply don't give a sh*t...

Go back to your reality distortion field and how Android is the new Jesus phone and Apple is Satan, LMAO