back to article Cyber-whizs partake in mass eye-roll event over latest leaks: CIA spies 'spying on iPhones'

CIA brainiacs at least thought about, or experimented with, breaking the security of Apple's iPhones, iPads and OS X computers, it appears from leaked intelligence documents. The intel agency wanted to crack the encrypted firmware stored on targeted iThings, and spy on selected users via poisoned apps, Snowden newsletter The …

  1. frank ly

    Who can you believe?

    That's a rhetorical question.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Who can you believe?

      Isn't it more "who can you trust"?

      I'm OK with Apple kit, but every so often I start wondering if I'm not better off with an Ubuntu phone - provided I can find someone trustworthy to screen what's in it. I recall some search engine malarky in regular Ubuntu, and I would like to make sure they haven't made that *cough* mistake *cough* again.

      The easier answer is to revive some of my older phones. I am positive a Nokia 6310 is not going to leak email...

  2. Drummer Boy

    Government spies try to do their job

    No real surprises here!

    1. Afernie

      Re: Government spies try to do their job without oversight again

      "No real surprises here!"

      FTFY

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Government spies try to do their job

      Indeed - I had to pinch myself that it is March outside.

      Instead of spying on everyone (except who they should be), instead of having sit-downs with service providers they actually worked to develop spy tools that are obviously for specific target usage and for spying on specific high value targets.

      There has to be something wrong here, there is still 17 days to go until the 1st of April.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LAN parr-tayyyy!

    Do the american army seriously have rooms full of soldiers in camoflage fatigues working on laptops, like illustrated in that picture? It's looks like a LAN party. Are they playing counterstrike? Do they get medals for it?

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: LAN parr-tayyyy!

      The pic was taken, if I recall correctly, at an exercise meant to work on how to implement and defend against a cyber attack. I think it was for one of the annual Cyber Defense Exercises which is hosted by the NSA. Why use a picture of an Army group at an NSA exercise in an article about the CIA's work?

      1. Mark 85

        Re: LAN parr-tayyyy!

        Why use a picture of an Army group at an NSA exercise in an article about the CIA's work?

        Spies are spies... even Cyberspies. The CIA being the CIA historically doesn't like pictures, obviously, since they still do a lot of human intel. Maybe they'd have to make any photographer "disappear"?

  4. Otto is a bear.

    Double Yawn

    Well, it's interesting that they mention Hawala banking, though I'd have thought that the IRS would be most interested. In the UK HMRC keep a close eye on it, but the I expect so do the Police and Security services, so that's not really a surprise, any more than the fact they use iPhone apps to do it, and governments want to crack them. Do something illegal and you can hardly be surprised if someone takes an interest in you for good or ill.

    I also suspect that, actually it's criminals that use it the most, as it's underground, but a lot of ordinary, not just rich, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families do too, to avoid tax and currency exchange regulations when visiting into or out of those countries.

    But lets be clear, so do terrorists, and it's very easy to pressure Hawala bankers into transferring funds for them, as it's basically illegal, on several levels.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does this mean that the CIA have declared WAR on Apple?

    I mean, they're being very open about all this. Maybe Apple should get the Department of Justice to investigate the CIA?

  6. Alan Denman

    Sim holes, FreakAttack .............

    It is all built in.

    And often to order, as we have come to know.

    All the CIA are doing is attempting to future proof it by being the only ones in the know.

  7. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

    Rhetorical Questions...

    ...deserve thumbs ups, especially when asked on mobile devices.

  8. Dan Paul

    Anytime that an Alphabet Agency says they can't do something...

    it means they have already done it. (Classic misdirection)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Making the News here

    ... is that the CIA was the source of funding behind Stingray. CIA operating on US soil, without warrant or with one from a judge not informed of collection mechanism, unintentionally (intentionally?) collecting location and phone conversations from US citizens. I lost count of the statutory, let alone constitutional, violations here.

    Hey, at least we've identified which Black Budget paid for all this.

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