[cryptome] Re: How the NSA Could Bug Your Powered-Off iPhone, and How to Stop Them

  • From: doug <douglasrankine2001@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:59:00 +0100

Hi Shaun,
Smart televisions contain software which has the capability of relating back viewer information...so that it can be used for selling to advertisers for targetting purposes. I wrote an email to one of those companies, observing that I was going to buy one of their televisions, but had found out that the software relaying my viewing habits could not be turned off. They admitted this and said they were looking into it, see "The Register". Of course if your television has a camera and a microphone, and any other software of such ilk previously mentioned...you can enjoy "The Wire" aware that the improvement in your education is being relayed directly to whoever may be monitering your viewing habits. Mind you, it has its "good" points,you might get offered a high paid job in the future...
Just remember the best secrets are kept in one's head, the moment you let them out, then your transmission can be traced. John Young has been saying it for a while now, but I think that there are still lots of people around whodon't quite believe it and are still looking for the "Holy Grail" of absolute security. Welcome to 1984, 2014 style. There is no place to hide these days, so why bother. Far better in my view to try and find ways to control the worst practices of this new multi-headed monster, else trust on the internet and its use for global trade, business, banking and commerce as well as private communications, will collapse in a pile of dust. The genie...as they say...is out of the bottle... 

ATB
Dougie.

On 10/06/14 15:24, Shaun O'Connor wrote:
that is a deliberate design policy form the get go. obviously on advice from people wanting easy access to private conversations without the knowledge or consent of the end user. have you noticed how products with obviously intrusive potential are marketed as "cool" gadgets? I believe Samsung developed a "smart" TV with a built in camera and listening capability which enabled advertisers to send targeted material based on ambient environmental input from the tv. Now here is the twist, by manufacturers marketing products in this way the NSA have a neat response they can argue that the user consented to the intrusive capability by purchasing said items. of course what the unwary buyer didnt know was the NSA most likely inserted backdoors into the TV sets so they could literally be sharing your living room space albeit remotely. 
nice trick no intercept warrant required.
now turning attention to the BBC that paragon of impartiality( cough, splutter, choke). ever wondered why they do not file a patent for their TV detection technology? Apparently the law abiding licence paying public are not entitled to know how this little piece of wizardly works. what's the betting that Aunty Beeb is an arm of the GCHQ trawling machine?
of course I am being speculative but..the BBC do seem to be secretive about their MO when it comes to licence enforcement. 

On 10/06/2014 14:27, Joe Products wrote:
Btw. did you noticed that you cannot remove battery in the new phones? Phone can play dead and pretty easily sucks battery. 

Magic. Happening.

In your pocket.

---------- Původní zpráva ----------
Od: Jeremy Compton <j.compton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Komu: cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Datum: 10. 6. 2014 15:10:28
Předmět: [cryptome] How the NSA Could Bug Your Powered-Off iPhone, and How to Stop Them 


      How the NSA Could Bug Your Powered-Off iPhone, and How to Stop Them



    http://www.wired.com/2014/06/nsa-bug-iphone/


    Whilst we are talking about this and Snowden talked about it. He
    basically said that if this same organisation wanted to they
    could have your phone. Or words to that effect. Not my words. I
    think the old advice was pull the battery and the sim card.



      * By Andy Greenberg <http://www.wired.com/author/andygreenberg/>
      * 06.03.14  |
      * 6:30 am  |
      * Permalink <http://www.wired.com/2014/06/nsa-bug-iphone/>
     *

    Just because you turned off your phone doesn’t mean the NSA isn’t
    using it to spy on you.
    Edward Snowden’s latest revelation about the NSA’s snooping
    inspired an extra dose of shock and disbelief when he said the
    agency’s hackers can use a mobile phone as a bug even after it’s
    been turned off. The whistleblower made that eye-opening claim
    when Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News, holding his iPhone aloft
    during last Wednesday’s interview
    <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-xxzOwr7I4>, asked, “What can
    the NSA do with this device if they want to get into my life? Can
    anyone turn it on remotely if it’s off? Can they turn on apps?
    “They can absolutely turn them on with the power turned off to
    the device,” Snowden replied.
    Snowden didn’t offer any details on this seemingly magical feat.
    But a group of particularly cunning iPhone hackers say it’s
    possible. They also say you can totally and completely turn off
    your iPhone so no one—not even the NSA—can use it to spy on you.


          Your Phone Is Playing Dead

    Like any magic trick, the most plausible method of eavesdropping
    through a switched-off phone starts with an illusion. Security
    researchers posit that if an attacker has a chance to install
    malware before you shut down your phone, that software could make
    the phone look like it’s shutting down—complete with a fake
    “slide to power off” screen. Instead of powering down, it enters
    a low-power mode that leaves its baseband chip—which controls
    communication with the carrier—on.
    This “playing dead” state would allow the phone to receive
    commands, including one to activate its microphone, says Eric
    McDonald, a hardware engineer in Los Angeles. McDonald is also a
    member of the Evad3rs, a team of iPhone hackers who created
    jailbreaks for the two previous iPhone operating systems. If the
    NSA used an exploit like those McDonald’s worked on to infect
    phone with malware that fakes a shutdown, “the screen would look
    black and nothing would happen if you pressed buttons,” he says.
    “But it’s conceivable that the baseband is still on, or turns on
    periodically. And it would be very difficult to know whether the
    phone has been compromised.” (Excerpt)



--
*_PRIVACY IS A BASIC RIGHT - NOT A CONCESSION _*

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