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."

Comments

Someone will make money

[gnasher719]

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?

Re:Someone will make money

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably the same as the odds that their fears about their old tablets being exploitable were completely justified.

Re:Someone will make money

[Stan92057]

But..why should we trust them? we already know if its made by an American company the US government will force them to make a hole....or... collect the data for the Government? Just saying... And lets say an Mexico software company made the software what guarantees the Mexican government didn't force the company to collect data, for the Mexican Government??

Re:Someone will make money

[bberens]

They should use Windows 8 RT tablets. No one bothered to figure out how to hack both of the users of that platform.

Re:Someone will make money

[shutdown -p now]

More likely, this is a purely populist gesture. People in Russia have been making fun of Medvedev's use of iPhone and iPad for a long time now, especially as it was seen as him trying to fit the positive stereotypes of the more liberal, "hipster" demographics. Now that same connection between liberals and Apple products is being played in reverse - "I'm a patriot! I don't use iPad!".

In Soviet Russia

[ArcadeMan]

iPads use YOU!

Paranoia?

[FuegoFuerte]

Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean we aren't out to get them.

Re:Paranoia?

[siddesu]

They aren't paranoid enough then. It is hard to see how using a Samsung device with Google instead of an Apple tablet and iOS is making them safer from spying.

Re:Paranoia?

[PRMan]

Do the words "open source" mean anything to you?

Re:Paranoia?

[chihowa]

The software delivered on Samsung tablets isn't entirely open source, either. Anyway, iOS is built on Darwin (among many other open source components), which is open source, too.

None of Google's non-OS apps, including the Play Store, are open source. The words "open source" are not a complete explanation of this situation.

Samsung? For Security!!!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

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!

Fart in a hurricane

[benjfowler]

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.

Paranoid?

[Filter]

How in the world is this paranoid?

Why Samsung?

[Mr. Sketch]

If they were really concerned about spying, shouldn't they go with a Nexus that runs stock Android?

Re:Why Samsung?

[barlevg]

If they were really concerned about spying, shouldn't they go with a Nexus that runs Cyanogenmod?

FTFY. Cyanogenmod, IIRC, has no proprietary or closed-source components.

Re:Why Samsung?

[barlevg]

Erm, there are still a few proprietary device drivers, it would appear. Still, that's a lot closer to the ideal than stock Android.

Re:Why Samsung?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Perhaps on a certain, small, specific, set of hardware targets; but the "Extract Proprietary Blobs" step is part of the Cyanogenmod build process for a reason...

I think that it's mostly AOSP at higher levels; but when 'the details' are kernel-level drivers that can do whatever the hell they want without you noticing, or firmware that has its own CPU and memory space in which to hide and do god-knows-what, you can be pretty sure that if there are devils in the details, you are fucked. Gratuitously.

Re:Why Samsung?

[knarf]

CM is full of binary blobs which are as closed and proprietary as they can get. If you want Android without the nasty bits you'd better look at Replicant - that is if it works on your device, of course...

Re:Zero info in article

[confused one]

But they can do this... Whereas with the iPad they have to take Apple's word for it. This may be the limitation that drove them to Android and Samsung

Pussy riot

[PopeRatzo]

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.

Globalization

[jellomizer]

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.

Re:Globalization

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

Russia is upset about the NSA and the US + EU's reaction to them taking over the Crimea.
China is upset about the NSA and is backing Russia over Crimea.
Android is open source.
Both countries have the resources to go through Android with a fine toothed comb. This looks pretty much like the best short-term option they had - lets see if someone now buys up Symbian, it comes from a Finnish company and could be a good starting point.

Re:Globalization

[tlhIngan]

Android is open source.
Both countries have the resources to go through Android with a fine toothed comb.

And AOSP != Android. In fact, who knows what code that Samsung tablet is running. There can be plenty of proprietary code on Android that's binary only, and no amount of analysis of AOSP will find them because that's not the code running on the tablet.

Code for the GPU is often closed-source. As is camera code, DSP code (for audio), etc.

And hell, If it's Samsung, it probably ships with Google apps as well, powered by root-owned Google Services Framework.

They'd actually be better off dumping iPads for those chintzy $100 tablets - those tend to be practically pure Google and very little of it is proprietary.

Those proprietary blobs will will you.

"Paranoid"

[pr0nbot]

In the post-Snowden world, I think we can replace most instances of the word "paranoid" with "reasonable".

Re:"Paranoid"

[epiccollision]

Do we really need more insight on the country that uses a Jersey Shore "No, Fuck you!" as its national agenda...We made them, just like we made Germany(et al.) after WWI, just like Afghanistan will be in a decade or so. You can't isolate and belittle ignorance with more ignorance, freedom comes with responsibility which we ignored...these are the consequences. Snowden is a small part of a lot of nonsense we let happen, how can we blame him for pointing out the mess we made?

Re:"Paranoid"

[hey!]

Hmm. "Just because you're reasonable doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

Wow, that actually works.

Re:Zero info in article

[Anonymous Coward]

Except they have to take now Google and Samsung's word for it.

Re:Zero info in article

[Anonymous Coward]

So.. Why would you trust Samsung over Apple? Samsung is a Koren Chaebol, the largest of 5 companies that contol 90% of the SK economy. They pretty much own the SK Govt. Samsung also has a history of gaping security holes.. Baked right in to their custom ARM cpus. (Ask the cyanogen devs what they think of Samsung's SoCs.. But put in earplugs first.)

This has nothing to do with security and everything to do with Putin's extremely aggressive propaganda. This non-story and the only reason you see it is because it's being pushed by their state media and western media outlets.

Soviets have no style

[RR]

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.

Re:Of course you should not use US stuff

[noh8rz10]

i think the new mac pros say made in china. assembled in usa. designed in california. what components need to be "made in usa" for us to rule out chinese interference? the processor chips? the memory? the fab equipment? where are the true scotsmen?

Re:Typewriters?

[timeOday]

They already did something much more sophisticated than that in the 1970's. Operation GUNMAN:

The monograph reveals that beginning in 1976, the KGB successfully installed sophisticated miniaturized electronic eavesdropping equipment and burst transmitters inside 16 IBM Selectric typewriters used by the staffs of the Moscow embassy and Leningrad consulate, which copied everything being typed on the machines, then periodically broadcast their take to KGB engineers manning listening posts just outside.

The KGB bugs were discovered eight years later in 1984 by a NSA operation codenamed Project GUNMAN

Here is the NSA's own writeup. Anybody who thinks the Russians are being "paranoid" is a real fool.

Re:I think they took a step in the wrong direction

[PPH]

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.

Not stock, not Cyanogenmod, go Replicant

[Phil Urich]

If they were really concerned about spying, shouldn't they go with a Nexus that runs Replicant

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.

Re:Zero info in article

[hondo77]

So.. Why would you trust Samsung over Apple?

Because the nice Samsung people payoff the right Russians better than the ones at Apple?

Re:Zero info in article

[LDAPMAN]

A $100 developer license is "impenetrable"? I can run anything I like on my iPad and I can deploy anything I like to the devices in my company.