Archiv: Apple Inc. (monopolies)


07.03.2025 - 12:07 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Mehrere europäische Länder greifen Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung an

(March 4, 2025)

In Großbritannien ist mit dem Investigatory Powers Act schon länger ein solches Gesetz in Kraft. Auf Grundlage des Gesetzes forderte die Regierung Anfang Februar von Apple, weltweit Hintertüren in seine iCloud-Verschlüsselung einzubauen.
(…)

In Frankreich hat jüngst ein Gesetz gegen den Drogenhandel den Senat passiert und soll schon im März in Parlament und Ausschüssen weiter behandelt werden. Dieses „hoch politisierte“ Gesetzespaket enthält eine Reihe an Verschärfungen, etwa eine heimliche Fernüberwachung über Mikrofone und Kameras von Endgeräten.
Der Menschenrechtsorganisation la Quadrature du Net bereitet aber wohl ein Gesetzeszusatz die größten Sorgen, der sich gezielt gegen verschlüsselte Kommunikation richtet. Der Passus soll Online-Dienste wie Signal oder WhatsApp verpflichten, Kommunikationsdaten in lesbarer Form herauszugeben und bedroht die Nichtbeachtung mit Strafen von bis zu 1,5 Millionen Euro für natürliche Personen oder zwei Prozent des Jahresumsatzes von juristischen Personen wie Unternehmen oder Stiftungen.
(…)
In Schweden ist ein geplantes Gesetz gegen illegale Online-Inhalte noch nicht ganz so weit. Es soll voraussichtlich erst im kommenden Jahr in den schwedischen Reichstag kommen. Die Initiative sieht laut SVT Nyheter vor, dass Messenger die Kommunikationen ihrer Nutzer:innen speichern müssen. Es sei „absolut entscheidend“, dass Ermittlungsbehörden Zugang zu digitaler Kommunikation erhalten, forderte der schwedische Justizminister.

07.03.2025 - 11:55 [ Computerworld.com ]

Apple appeals UK encryption backdoor demand

(March 5, 2025)

Let’s say that Apple lets the order stand and simply opts out of the UK market, which is essentially what it has already done, he said. That could encourage other governments, especially those in France, Australia, and Canada, to try the same tactic.

“If that happens, then the [UK] government has set a precedent,” Chagnon said. But if Apple succeeds in this appeal, which was reported in various media including The Financial Times, “then Apple will have turned the tables and set their own precedent. It would be saying ‘No, China, no, Germany, no, France, you can’t have a backdoor.’”

09.02.2025 - 17:35 [ Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) ]

CCIA Responds to Reports of UK Demand for Worldwide Apple iCloud Access

The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO Matt Schruers:

“As the recent Salt Typhoon breach makes clear, end-to-end encryption may be the only safeguard standing between Americans’ sensitive personal and business data and foreign adversaries.

“Reports that Apple has been secretly ordered by the UK Government to weaken its encryption, including in the United States, are a troubling development, if accurate. Decisions about Americans’ privacy and security should be made in America, in an open and transparent fashion, not through secret orders from abroad requiring keys be left under doormats.”

09.02.2025 - 17:30 [ Forbes ]

Apple’s ‘Dangerous’ iPhone Update Is Much Worse Than You Think

So, why is this worse than you think. In my view — and no one can officially comment, so “views” will be all we can share — any such government action would not stop with Apple. Not to over-simplify matters, but a bad actor would simply run Google’s helpful switch to Android software. If the U.K is going after Apple, it’s also going after Google and Meta and others. Why would they not? But Soviet-style, none of these other parties can comment or answer questions or confirm or deny.

08.02.2025 - 17:46 [ Washington Post ]

U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts

(February 7, 2025)

The law, known by critics as the Snoopers’ Charter, makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has even made such a demand. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Apple can appeal the U.K. capability notice to a secret technical panel, which would consider arguments about the expense of the requirement, and to a judge who would weigh whether the request was in proportion to the government’s needs. But the law does not permit Apple to delay complying during an appeal.

08.02.2025 - 17:26 [ theVerge.com ]

Apple ordered to open encrypted user accounts globally to UK spying

Apple’s iCloud backups aren’t encrypted by default, but the Advanced Data Protection option was added in 2022, and must be enabled manually. It uses end-to-end encryption so that not even Apple can access encrypted files. In response to the order, Apple is expected to simply stop offering Advanced Data Protection in the UK. This wouldn’t meet the UK’s demand for access to files shared by global users, however.

08.02.2025 - 17:21 [ TKP.at ]

UK verlangt Zugriff auf verschlüsselte Daten aller Apple-Nutzer weltweit

(today)

Hintertüren, wie die von den Briten geforderte, sind von Natur aus gefährlich. Beim Hack der US-Kommunikationssysteme im Jahr 2024, der angeblich von chinesischen Akteuren durchgeführt wurde, wurde eine Hintertür verwendet, die die USA und andere Regierungen gefordert hatten:

„Dies ist nicht das erste Mal, dass Hacker die von CALEA vorgeschriebenen Abhör-Backdoors ausnutzen. Wie der Computersicherheitsexperte Nicholas Weaver 2015 gegenüber Lawfare betonte, „muss jede in den USA verkaufte Telefonanlage die Möglichkeit bieten, eine große Anzahl von Anrufen effizient abzuhören. Und da die USA einen so großen Markt darstellen, bedeutet dies, dass praktisch jede weltweit verkaufte Telefonanlage die Funktion ‚Lawful Intercept‘ enthält.“

Vor zwei Jahrzehnten wurde diese obligatorische Abhörfunktion von Hackern, die es auf Vodafone Griechenland abgesehen hatten, unterwandert. Sie fingen Telefongespräche des Premierministers des Landes und hochrangiger politischer, polizeilicher und militärischer Beamter ab.“

01.07.2023 - 13:40 [ SearchEngineJournal.com ]

Elon Musk Hires Prolific Hacker George Hotz To Fix Twitter Search

(November 23, 2022)

In the span of a 12-week internship, Hotz promises to “fix” Twitter search and introduce all-new features, such as the ability to search within liked tweets.

As the first person in the world to jailbreak the iPhone, Hotz is no stranger to bringing new capabilities to existing platforms.

01.07.2023 - 13:06 [ DailyMail.co.uk ]

Revealed: Google and Facebook DID allow NSA access to data and were in talks to set up ‚spying rooms‘ despite denials by Zuckerberg and Page over PRISM project

(8 June 2013)

Meanwhile, Twitter is one company which has managed to keep mum in PRISM discussions.

01.07.2023 - 13:04 [ theGuardian.com ]

NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others

(7 Jun 2013)

The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims „collection directly from the servers“ of major US service providers.

Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.

23.05.2023 - 11:35 [ Al Jazeera ]

US says China can spy with TikTok. It spies on world with Google

(28.03.2023)

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which the US Congress must vote to reauthorise by December to prevent it from lapsing under a sunset clause, allows US intelligence agencies to carry out warrantless spying on foreigners’ email, phone and other online communications.

While US citizens have some protections against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, the US government has maintained that these rights do not extend to foreigners overseas, giving agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) practically free rein to snoop on their communications.

12.04.2023 - 15:33 [ Haaretz ]

Spyware From Israeli Firm QuaDream Used to Hack Journalists, Activists Around the World

Israel‘s offensive cyber industry accounts for a wide variety of surveillance and espionage technologies. A number of these are tools sold to policing bodies which reveal the geographic location of a target. There are also more advanced technologies, sold to law enforcement and intelligence bodies, which allow clients to hack into computers, mobile phones and encrypted messaging apps, extracting all information stored on a device and secretly turning on its microphone and camera to create a tool which spies on its owner.

29.01.2023 - 20:32 [ Bert Walther / Nitter ]

Schlapphüte offen für neue Technologien…

02.01.2023 - 17:23 [ 9to5mac.com ]

How to turn on end-to-end encryption for iMessage, iCloud, iPhone backups in iOS 16.2

(Dec. 16th 2022)

While end-to-end encryption (E2E) has been already present for Apple’s Messages, iCloud Keychain, Health data, and more, the update brings E2E to your Messages Backup (Messages in iCloud) your iPhone iCloud backup, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, and Wallet Passes.

25.06.2022 - 08:59 [ theRegister.com ]

Google: How we tackled this iPhone, Android spyware

We‘re told it is potentially capable of spying on the victims‘ chat apps, camera and microphone, contacts book and calendars, browser, and clipboard, and beam that info back to base. It‘s said that Italian authorities have used this tool in tackling corruption cases, and the Kazakh government has had its hands on it, too.

On Thursday this week, TAG revealed its analysis of the software, and how it helped dismantle the infection.

25.06.2022 - 08:49 [ ORF.at ]

Google: Spionageangriffe auf Handys in Italien

Google erklärte weiter, in einigen der nun aufgedeckten Fälle mit der Spähsoftware aus Italien hätten die Hacker die Spionagesoftware möglicherweise unter Zusammenarbeit mit Internetdienstanbietern eingesetzt. Daraus könne geschlossen werden, dass die Käufer der Programme Verbindungen zu staatlich unterstützten Akteuren hatten.

25.06.2022 - 08:08 [ Google Threat Analysis Group ]

Spyware vendor targets users in Italy and Kazakhstan

(23.06.2022)

Seven of the nine zero-day vulnerabilities our Threat Analysis Group discovered in 2021 fall into this category: developed by commercial providers and sold to and used by government-backed actors. TAG is actively tracking more than 30 vendors with varying levels of sophistication and public exposure selling exploits or surveillance capabilities to government-backed actors.

(..)

In some cases, we believe the actors worked with the target’s ISP to disable the target’s mobile data connectivity. Once disabled, the attacker would send a malicious link via SMS asking the target to install an application to recover their data connectivity. We believe this is the reason why most of the applications masqueraded as mobile carrier applications. When ISP involvement is not possible, applications are masqueraded as messaging applications. (…)

We assess, based on the extensive body of research and analysis by TAG and Project Zero, that the commercial spyware industry is thriving and growing at a significant rate. This trend should be concerning to all Internet users.

These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools and arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house. While use of surveillance technologies may be legal under national or international laws, they are often found to be used by governments for purposes antithetical to democratic values: targeting dissidents, journalists, human rights workers and opposition party politicians.

30.04.2022 - 17:25 [ addons.mozilla.org ]

Cloud Firewall

Block connections to pages and web resources hosted in major cloud services if the user wishes to do so. Supports blocking Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Cloudflare.

01.04.2022 - 06:41 [ Reuters ]

U.S. bars ex-spies from becoming ‚mercenaries,‘ following Reuters series

(March 16, 2022)

“We don‘t want our best trained intel officers going straight into the hands of foreign governments for the sake of money,“ Castro said. „This discourages intelligence mercenaries and protects our national interest.“

The UAE spying operation, called Project Raven, hacked into Facebook and Google accounts and thousands of Apple iPhones, targeting activists that human rights groups say were later arrested and tortured

01.04.2022 - 06:05 [ ReclaimTheNet.org ]

Lawsuit accusing tech giants of spying is allowed to proceed

(September 14, 2022)

In the legal battles with a focus on listening devices like “smart speakers,” etc, that are currently active in the US, Google and Amazon are not spared either. Reports, including by Reuters, say that a number of filings allege that their devices and apps are recording users’ conversations without their consent, and that Big Tech companies use this material to make money by giving it to advertisers, who can then more precisely target people based on knowledge of their behavior and interests.

03.01.2022 - 11:04 [ IndianExpress.com ]

If you suspect being targeted with Pegasus, get in touch by January 7: Supreme Court panel

The committee constituted by the Supreme Court to look into allegations of snooping using the Pegasus spyware invited all citizens who suspected their mobile phones had been targeted to contact the panel by noon on January 7.

“The committee requests any citizen of India who has reasonable cause to suspect that his/her mobile has been compromised due to specific usage of NSO Group Israel’s Pegasus software to contact the technical committee appointed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, with reasons as to why you believe your device may have been infected with Pegasus malware, and whether you would be in a position to allow the Technical Committee to examine your device,” the three-member panel said in an advertisement in several national dailies.

16.12.2021 - 04:33 [ Wired ]

Google Warns That NSO Hacking Is On Par With Elite Nation-State Spies

“This is on par with serious nation-state capabilities,” he says. “It‘s really sophisticated stuff, and when it‘s wielded by an all-gas, no-brakes autocrat, it‘s totally terrifying. And it just makes you wonder what else is out there being used right now that is just waiting to be discovered. If this is the kind of threat civil society is facing, it is truly an emergency.”

After years of controversy, there may be growing political will to call out private spyware developers.

14.12.2021 - 08:10 [ Boris Reitschuster ]

Bundespressekonferenz: Wünschen sich Journalisten mehr Zensur?

Bemerkenswert finde ich auch etwa die Frage vom Kollegen von der »Süddeutschen Zeitung«, ob sich aus der Protestbewegung eine Terrorbewegung entwickelt. Und die Frage, ob man Apple und Google auffordern könne, die Telegram-App nicht mehr anzubieten. Kommentatoren sahen diese Frage als indirekte Aufforderung an die Regierung, das zu tun.

28.11.2021 - 18:57 [ theGuardian.com ]

Notorious Pegasus spyware faces its day of reckoning

If you were compiling a list of the most toxic tech companies, Facebook – strangely – would not come out on top. First place belongs to NSO, an outfit of which most people have probably never heard. Wikipedia tells us that “NSO Group is an Israeli technology firm primarily known for its proprietary spyware Pegasus, which is capable of remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones”.

Pause for a moment on that phrase: “remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones”.

17.11.2021 - 18:12 [ Heise.de ]

Biotechnologie, Staat und Kapital

Dieser Markt ließe sich unermesslich steigern, sollte die Propaganda, dass die gesamte Menschheit (B. Gates) und in Deutschland fast die gesamte Bevölkerung (A. Merkel) geimpft werden solle und auch müsse, umgesetzt werden. Deshalb schätzt das Finanz- und Analyseunternehmen „Morningstar“ für 2021 zu erwartenden Umsatz von 67 Milliarden US-Dollar für Covid-19-Impfstoffe. Der Umsatz der Rüstungsindustrie umfasste 2019 166 Mrd. US-Dollar.

Zwei dieser Biotech-Unternehmen sollen näher betrachtet werden: Biontech und Curevac.

05.10.2021 - 00:35 [ Middle East Monitor ]

After NSO Group, warning issued against second Israeli spyware firm

(October 4, 2021)

The July report by Citizen‘s Lab and Microsoft found that Candiru had been used to spy on more than 100 human rights activists, regime opponents, journalists and scholars from countries such as Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, UK, Turkey and even Israel.

Revelations about Candiru make it the first time that fingers were being pointed at a second Israeli cyber-surveillance company, which is considered a competitor of the NSO Group. The notorious Israeli firm sparked a global scandal in July following the discovery that as many as 50,000 phones were targeted by its Pegasus spyware.

05.10.2021 - 00:24 [ Haaretz ]

Cellphone Hacking and Millions in Gulf Deals: Inner Workings of Top Secret Israeli Cyberattack Firm Revealed

(Sep. 7, 2020)

NSO’s specialty is hacking smartphones. Up till now, little was known about Candiru. TheMarker has revealed that the firm offers hacking tools used to break into computers and servers, and now, for the first time, has confirmed it also has technology for breaking into mobile devices.

05.10.2021 - 00:20 [ Forbes ]

Meet Candiru — The Mysterious Mercenaries Hacking Apple And Microsoft PCs For Profit

(Oct 3, 2019)

Israel is home to scores of hacker-for-hire businesses, but one of the most clandestine has been Candiru. With no website and few records available, it’s operated largely under the radar.

But now a researcher is claiming the elite Tel Aviv-based firm sold cyber weapons to the government of Uzbekistan, while industry sources tell Forbes the company is hacking both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macs for various nation states.

03.09.2021 - 20:21 [ Wired ]

Apple Backs Down on Its Controversial Photo-Scanning Plans

In August, Apple detailed several new features intended to stop the dissemination of child sexual abuse materials. The backlash from cryptographers to privacy advocates to Edward Snowden himself was near-instantaneous, largely tied to Apple‘s decision not only to scan iCloud photos for CSAM, but to also check for matches on your iPhone or iPad. After weeks of sustained outcry, Apple is standing down. At least for now.

09.08.2021 - 09:38 [ Eva, Director of Cybersecurity @EFF / Twitter ]

Apple distributed this internal memo this morning, dismissing their critics as „the screeching voices of the minority.“ I will never stop screeching about the importance of privacy, security, or civil liberties. And neither should you.

(06.08.2021)

09.08.2021 - 09:04 [ CyberPreserve / Twitter ]

A week after Apple introduced an important update iOS 14.7, which despite including critical security fixes, failed to address a vulnerability in iMessage that can be misused by the adversaries to pose a threat and attack iPhones via Pegasus malware.

(02.08.2021)

09.08.2021 - 08:53 [ Raya / Twitter ]

Shocking how Apple still has the nerve to claim they care about user privacy, just a few weeks after the Pegasus leak revealed that a spyware took advantage of (among other things) a big vulnerability on iMessage… the same app they‘re now deploying a privacy backdoor to…

(06.08.2021)

09.08.2021 - 08:36 [ Will Cathcart, Head of @WhatsApp at @Facebook / Twitter ]

I read the information Apple put out yesterday and I‘m concerned. I think this is the wrong approach and a setback for people‘s privacy all over the world. People have asked if we‘ll adopt this system for WhatsApp. The answer is no.

(06.08.2021)