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Russian Officials Dump iPads For Samsung Tablets Over Spy Fears
wiredmikey writes: "Russian government officials have swapped their iPads for Samsung tablets to ensure tighter security, the telecoms minister told news agencies on Wednesday. Journalists spotted that ministers at a cabinet meeting were no longer using Apple tablets, and minister Nikolai Nikiforov confirmed the changeover "took place not so long ago." He said the ministers' new Samsungs were "specially protected devices that can be used to work with confidential information." This isn't the first time Russian powers have had concerns over mobile. In August 2012, Russia unveiled a prototype tablet with its own "almost Android" mobile OS that has the remarkably familiar feel of an Android but with bolstered encryption. In an even more paranoid move, this past July a Russian state service in charge of safeguarding Kremlin communications was looking to purchase an array of old-fashioned typewriters to prevent leaks from computer hardware."
What are the odds that someone high up has a company that offers expensive software to protect Android from spies and makes a ton from this?
iPads use YOU!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
was the black market version of Flappy Birds came preinstalled on the new tablets. And always remember "in Russia, birds flap you."
Apple needs to disappear. Then Google. Then we should be good for another couple of years until the next US wannabe Internet God comes again. Is the market working well, would you say?
Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean we aren't out to get them.
But it sounds like jumping from the frying pan into the fire by moving to Android, unless they rewrite all the Android code themselves with the help of Russia's equivalent of the NSA.
What?! :-)
You mean proven "hardware backdoor" Samsung?
I don't know about Cook & Ives shuck and jive, since the passing of Jobs... But I'm pretty sure the iOS crypto flaws are lower risk than ANYTHING those gangsters make at Samsung. I won't let them land an icebox in my house!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
You just cannot trust anything with bits&bytes made in the US. How can anyone think otherwise these days?
If certain Western intelligence agencies want to attack certain devices belonging to certain people, they'll find a way in, regardless of which mass market POS they're using. They're wasting their time. This is just a pointless gesture.
How in the world is this paranoid?
"better ways of doing things eventually just replace the inferior things" - Linus Torvalds 09-08-07
With all those typewriters why even bother buying tablets! On a side note I wonder if the code for their "secure almost-android" OS was typed up.
Maybe they manually compiled it ?
The truth is, they were fed up with iTunes Store glitches.
If they were really concerned about spying, shouldn't they go with a Nexus that runs stock Android?
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
If you really want a secure mobile just make your own. If you can't for patent and legal reasons, just make your own software. Just make sure the basics of security is integrated like encryption, pgp, ssl and all the other security crap everyone needs but Apple, Android don't have enough.
One can only surmise that the widespread anti-gay sentiment in the Russian government has something to do with them dumping their iPads in favor of Samsung tablets.
Just saying.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Sammy sent hookers & blow. Google didn't.
Or, they got the tablets free with new fridges for the kremlin kitchen(s).
I suppose they could have sent the h&b for the fridges, and threw in the tablets too. :)
The iPad: The OS Designed in America, Built in China shipped worldwide.
Samsung Tablet: The OS Designed in America, Built in China and shipped world wide.
The only difference is which CEO gets the Cut The one in America or the one in Korea.
NSA to Apple: Add spying to your OS or you will not be allowed to sell it world wide.
NSA to Google: Add spying to your OS or you will not be allowed to sell it world wide.
NSA to Samsung: Insure the spying features in your OS are not disabled unless you will not be allowed to sell in the US.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
In the post-Snowden world, I think we can replace most instances of the word "paranoid" with "reasonable".
I'd be upset if American politicians and appointees were discussing sensitive information through such consumer electronic devices, too.
They switched to Samsung for greater security?
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!
If they're worried about the NSA having code running on their tablets.... why did they swap their mach/freebsd running tablets for ones running and OS that's had heavy development from the NSA?
More than a decade ago the NSA got involved in linux development and never left. Is it possible that their security people have poured over the millions of lines of C and assembly that make up the linux kernel and all the drivers that are running on their tablets? Possibly, but highly doubtful.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Pull my brain stem out and disconnect myself
I WANT TO PULL IT OUT!
This has nothing to do with distrust of the Apple, or paranoia of the NSA. It has everything to do with the recently imposed sanctions.
In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.
I pity them. They would turn their backs on our more advanced tech for Korean bargain bucket crap. Probably made north of the border. lol. Good luck comrade morons..
In the age of NSA spying, do we really call this paranoia? They were tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone and Germany is an ally. What would stop them from taping Russian lines, especially now. And with Apple reportedly joining the PRISM program, I think this is a smart move on Russia's behalf.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.
As the evil Soviet Union rises again, they're back to their old form, rejecting stylish devices from the USA and adopting clunky copycat devices.
Have a nice time.
Samsung tablets are powered by Google's Android? Google... American Search Giant...
Devil's advocate (so posting AC):
I would say that the NSA code in Linux has been a boon rather than a debit in general. SELinux has proven itself in the field and even if something manages to get access to root... it still is stuck in that app's context (barring a kernel hole like the one found a few years back and promptly fixed.)
Between the hardening of the OS (not just Linux... OS X has gotten a lot of security upgrades over the versions... just look at how passwords were stored on an earlier version versus how they are stored now), and the fact that NIST has very useful (although basic if you know the OS) security guidelines, the NSA has kept my stuff more secure than insecure.
This is the worst part of the Snowden leaks from an American business perspective. There will be a slow global migration to other platforms based on the possibility that American products contain the ability to spy on you. I've no idea what that time frame is, but unless the US government pulls a 180 on corporate cooperative spying, there will one day be no market for US tech products outside of the USA.
I'm not disagreeing with that. I think it's been a positive for the linux kernel as well, making linux a much more secure platform. I just thought it was funny that the Russians swapped their hardware for something that ostensibly the NSA has had more access to.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Is it possible that their security people have poured over the millions of lines of C and assembly
The idea that this is done by some Aspie code geek is wrong. There are some good tools for checking code for bugs, back doors, etc.
Have gnu, will travel.
Russian officials switch from Coke to Pepsi because it's healthier.
Sent from my TARDIS
I mean, for the average person I'm not saying they need to be so paranoid; there's likely backdoors or potential exploits, but it's also unlikely to ever matter, and some of the functionality that's sacrificed is likely not worth it for the average bloke. But for guarding state secrets? You want something that involves zero binary blobs, and Replicant is the closest you get for Android.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
I find with every new version of Android, things are removed and generally get worse. Same old cycle the PC has, new OS has to be bloated and slow to make the newer phones shine over the slower ones trying to do the same thing.
NSA "security essentials???" code added in Android 4.x, all sorts of other little errors they don't fix(browsers suspended when screen goes off, more)..
Secure android wouldn't be all that difficult if they just 'stopped' adding so much crap to it, focus on streamlining and closing potential holes. Give users control over app permissions and that sort of thing.
. I use gingerbread still cause it's much like XP was to Vista(and 7/8 imo)
Yeah, no spyware/malware on Android!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
But he's asking if there's any obfuscation-contest like stuff in there that looks normal but actually spies on you.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
If Russia are not doing anything nefarious, why should they worry about what spies might discover? :)
In all seriousness, while it’s nice that NSA spying on US citizens has been exposed, it’s NOT good that so many US state secrets were revealed in the process. Contrary to what some lunatics would like to tell you, there ARE external threats that face America and the American people. You can’t run proper defensive operations if all of your strategies are visible to the enemy. I’m not sure that Edward Snowden realized just how much damage he was going to cause. And I’m not sure that the benefits necessarily outweigh the costs in this case. That being said, if the whistle-blower laws had provided contractors with a safe avenue for reporting legal violations, Snowden may have had the option to blow the whistle WITHOUT fucking with US national security.
Desk telephones were in the beginning produced only in the USA, UK, and Italy. Later they were produced everywhere.
I think we need open source hardware and software for mobile devices. Like it is already done with PHP, GIMP, OpenStreetMap, etc.
I realized only by now how important these Open Source Software movements are. We should really support such projects. This is our vital interest.
So Appple, due it being an American company and the Snowden revelations are not considered
secure by the Russians anymore.
Makes sense.
Then they chose a product from Samsung a South Korean company.
South Korean Intelligence is so tightly coupled with American intelligence as to make no difference.
Furthermore at the bottom lays an operating system written by an American company just like Apple.
There is no "secure" Android version from Samsung to be had.
Is it possible that their security people have poured over the millions of lines of C and assembly
The idea that this is done by some Aspie code geek is wrong. There are some good tools for checking code for bugs, back doors, etc.
You can just craft your exploits in ways that won't set off the common code analysis tools.
But speaking as an Aspie code geek, I can tell you that that's not a guarantee you won't get found out. I learned a lot of what I know about OS's by hand-disassembling some back when OS source code wasn't freely available.
[ ] Cupertino (all iDevices are evil)
[x] Seoul (even their TVs smart-call home)
No, "network effects" is the right term.
Apple had a very well-designed, well-built and convenient product with iPod. They followed up with the well-designed and convenient software product, iTunes. iTunes is so profitable and flawlessly exemplifies vendor lock-in, that they followed up with the same model for the iPhone and iPad.
One ecosystem, which just happens to not work very well with other vendors' products, and essentially never with open-platform systems.
That model is even sweeter than Microsoft's lock-in model, which was an improvement over IBM's lock-in model.
The company I work for has implemented some infrastructure with iXxx and they basically regret the decision; Apple's control is *very* effective at many levels, much to our disappointment.
Back to the good old days of the lada?
Isn't it grand.
I think they would be more trusting of china ( generic ) than south Korea ( Samsung ) or really push hard on their own devices.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Re If they're worried about the NSA having code running on their tablets.... why did they swap their mach/freebsd running tablets for ones running and OS that's had heavy development from the NSA?
Russia always knew its telco and radio and related mil networks where been collected in bulk by the US and UK via surrounding countries.
Russia tried the onetime pad, no chatter (no extra messages) for a short time in the 1950's. Russia quickly found they could not run a modern mil communications system with that kind of work load per message. The US and UK got much less but rapid internal communications became too difficult.
By the 1960-70's the US and UK where getting everything as Russia had no option but to upgrade and understood all its communications was leaking and been tracked/mapped.
Why use a different brand of tablets that will still be NSA ready? Staff need tablets for day to day tasks. The divestment aspect is popular, the open source code is good for local developers and cash spent moves to Asia - hearts and minds.
The USA has been into all generations of crypto, all networking, software and hardware as sold - no escape from that reality.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
There was a NSA slide that said they have 100% success rate on infecting iOS devices, with push capabilities (can plant false evidence).
I don't know the news article, but Jacob Applebaum showed that slide somewhere in this presentation: Jacob Applebaum: To Protect And Infect, Part 2 [30c3]
It's a long and very good presentation by the way.
They are not paranoids, it's not "spy fears", they're just minimally informed.
The real reason is:
Recently imposed sanctions caught everybody involved cut off from their Apple account.
So they saw the light and switched. Then probably lower ranks did not really want to irritate their superiors by flashing the Apple shiny in front of the bosses.
What about Samsung's well-documented backdoor (in hardware), Tovarsch?!
the spies-and-lies folks routinely read carbon IBM ribbons. they could also identify many keystrokes from the sound if they knew what typewriter was being used.
everything can be spied on. everything.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
So, I think we can safely assume that US government (NSA, CIA, whatever) has (had) access to Apple's customer databases. They will know when Russia officials order iPads. How far fetched would it be, really, to fear that they implanted some stuff on those specific devices to spy on the Russian government?
The problem is that during meetings, the Cossack dances turned out to be much harder on the tablets than the Movement dance on the American commercials.
Good thing they didnt then hey?
they turned their back on the overpriced American bargain bucket crao for more advanced tech!
When a damn ink pen will transmit what is being wrote.
Pen and paper aint safe.
The world is boned.
World war 3 has started.
...Russian laziness and incompetence. Sure as hell they THEORETICALLY could do this. But where is the money ? Where is the energetic leader of this effort ? Mr Kaspersky is onto something, but in the end he is a sleazy businessman, not a GRU colonel of exceptional intelligence. Or maybe he is, and is their best human craft guy, posing as a sleazebizman. After all, the once was an intel soldier.
Russia needs a guy of the same level as William Friedman or Alan Turing, otherwise they don't stand a chance.
Doing an entire system from every transistor up to the application "secure" is one of the most difficult tasks you can imagine.
If history is a guide, both Germany and Japan never managed to achieve that 1933 to 1945. There is not much we know about the Russkies, but rumours are that they weren't much better.
But then, never understimate the enigmatic power of the people who own the largest land mass of all nations. OKW/Chi deciphering was taught/initiated/coached by the chief decipherer of the czar, after he had to flee Russia. So much also to the Hitlerist idea of "Russian subhumans".
At the moment, the Russians lose on this front.
Let's see.
What, they've never heard of carbon paper in Russia?
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!