Slashdot Mirror
Apple Says It's Already Fixed Many WikiLeaks Security Issues (usatoday.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: Apple says many of the vulnerabilities to its devices and software that came to light in WikiLeaks' revelations of CIA cyber weapons were already fixed in its latest updates. Late Tuesday, Apple emailed the following statement to USA TODAY: "Apple is deeply committed to safeguarding our customers' privacy and security. The technology built into today's iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers, and we're constantly working to keep it that way. Our products and software are designed to quickly get security updates into the hands of our customers, with nearly 80 percent of users running the latest version of our operating system. While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest OS, we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities. We always urge customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent security updates." For its part, Samsung emailed its own statement Wednesday: "Protecting consumers' privacy and the security of our devices is a top priority at Samsung. We are aware of the report in question and are urgently looking into the matter."
I'm glad to see positive response across the board, from Apple, Samsung, and I'm sure others. Especially Apple and Samsung, though, as I have many devices from both of them in my home.
Keep an eye out for updates on "Unlocked" Phones that have switched networks. For some insane reason phones are marketed as "unlocked" when they can be used on another carrier's network, but *the security updates don't work* if you use them on the other network. These should probably be considered unmarketable and therefore not unlocked--and there should be a convenient way to pull signed security updates from the manufacturer instead of the carrier. Samsung and Apple issuing patches doesn't help if Verizon and AT&T fail to talk to each other enough for users on both networks to get the security updates, regardless of who originally installed a given phone's O/S.
Real lawyers write in C++
What incentive would they have to do so? This is stupid. Apple and Samsung want their systems to be secure. If the CIA can find the exploits so can anyone else.
The Wikileaks dump, as usual, was more hype than substance. It's just a dump of run-of-the-mills exploit info/research/implementation notes that you would expect the CIA to have. This is literally their mission.
The only thing of note is that it was leaked to Wikileaks. The who and the why are the real story. If anything about the exploit dump is shocking to you, you're an idiot.
You want a conspiracy theory? Here's one that doesn't fit your narrative-
It's fairly obvious team Trump were in contact with Russian security services. We knew this before the election and more revelations keep dripping out every week anyway. - The motive? Same game they've been up to for the past half-decade. Stir up political shit in western nations to make them weaker. Trump is the master shit-disturber, for obvious reasons. They didn't even care if Trump won.
Fast forward to recent events - CIA knows what was going on because it's their fucking job. Russia is getting skittish because the truth lends credibility to the idea that they're running organized propaganda/disinfo programs supporting radical far-right media and political groups. The Trump administration knows the CIA knows. Russia knows the Trump administration knows the CIA knows.
Sooo.. Wikileaks, which is known to happily re-publish leaks from Russian intelligence operations. (Its their job to publish all interesting leaks really), makes yet another wonderfully timely release that affects a US entity that is causing the Russians trouble right now.
It's all a giant clusterfuck heading for disaster and everyone is trying to mitigate the incoming fallout. (Russia's been busy offing and vanishing spooks that were in charge of feeding team Trump helpful hints and info and directing far-right media efforts in the US)