60 Minutes’ asked a security firm to hack an iPhone and we’re all basically screwed

quest7

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Apple’s battle with the FBI may have whipped the tech world into a frenzy of establishment-hating wannabe anarchists, but it’s this ’60 minutes’ segment that should really [removed by mod] you off.

Wanting to find out just how safe our phones are from hackers, the 60 minutes team sought professionals from Security Research Labs to break into Congressman Ted Lieu’s iPhone. Lieu, a member of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Information Technology (an acronym that’s dangerously close to spelling [removed by mod] ) agreed to be the team’s guinea pig.

While security professionals are abuzz with theories — ranging from deep freezing the flash memory to creating its own operating system — on how the FBI accessed the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, it turns out all Security Research Labs needed to access secure data was Congressman Lieu’s phone number.

It’s not apples-to-apples; the researchers weren’t accessing encrypted files or attempting to gain access to the physical device, but what they were able to accomplish with just a phone number is still incredible.

With those digits alone, the team was able to hear and record Lieu’s phone calls, track his movement, view his contacts and create a log of all incoming and outgoing calls.

For the Apple haters out there, hold on to your hats… the hack perpetrated on Lieu will work on any phone, using any carrier, running any operating system, and it’s all thanks to a security flaw in a piece of technology you’ve probably never heard of.

Signaling System 7 (SS7) is a global network that connects all phone carriers around the world into a singular hub, of sorts. The hack exploits a known security flaw in SS7, but one that’s proven relatively difficult to fix due to the way SS7 is governed, or not governed, in this case.

Currently, SS7 is used by all the world’s cellular carrier’s, but it’s not governed by any of them, or any single government entity either. Instead, it’s a sort of global collaboration with a ton of red tape and no real solution on how to close the security holes that plague the world’s cell phone users.

It should put you at ease that the world’s best hackers probably aren’t all that interested in your $300 bank account balance and your impressive collection of reaction GIFs, but it’s a scary time to be a smartphone user, nonetheless.

visit this link Insane $1.6bn Powerball jackpot is nearly as much cash as Google has ever raised .. cally-screwed/
 
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mhinc

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Dec 27, 2012
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Apple’s battle with the FBI may have whipped the tech world into a frenzy of establishment-hating wannabe anarchists, but it’s this ’60 minutes’ segment that should really [removed by mod] you off.

Wanting to find out just how safe our phones are from hackers, the 60 minutes team sought professionals from Security Research Labs to break into Congressman Ted Lieu’s iPhone. Lieu, a member of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Information Technology (an acronym that’s dangerously close to spelling [removed by mod]) agreed to be the team’s guinea pig.

While security professionals are abuzz with theories — ranging from deep freezing the flash memory to creating its own operating system — on how the FBI accessed the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, it turns out all Security Research Labs needed to access secure data was Congressman Lieu’s phone number.

It’s not apples-to-apples; the researchers weren’t accessing encrypted files or attempting to gain access to the physical device, but what they were able to accomplish with just a phone number is still incredible.

With those digits alone, the team was able to hear and record Lieu’s phone calls, track his movement, view his contacts and create a log of all incoming and outgoing calls.

For the Apple haters out there, hold on to your hats… the hack perpetrated on Lieu will work on any phone, using any carrier, running any operating system, and it’s all thanks to a security flaw in a piece of technology you’ve probably never heard of.

Signaling System 7 (SS7) is a global network that connects all phone carriers around the world into a singular hub, of sorts. The hack exploits a known security flaw in SS7, but one that’s proven relatively difficult to fix due to the way SS7 is governed, or not governed, in this case.

Currently, SS7 is used by all the world’s cellular carrier’s, but it’s not governed by any of them, or any single government entity either. Instead, it’s a sort of global collaboration with a ton of red tape and no real solution on how to close the security holes that plague the world’s cell phone users.

It should put you at ease that the world’s best hackers probably aren’t all that interested in your $300 bank account balance and your impressive collection of reaction GIFs, but it’s a scary time to be a smartphone user, nonetheless.

visit this link Insane $1.6bn Powerball jackpot is nearly as much cash as Google has ever raised .. cally-screwed/

I personally think it was fantastic that the FBI, on the morning of Apple's KeyNote said "Ya we are dropping the court case, we found our own way in"
 
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bitek

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That is why if you want true security blackberry phones are only option

Posted via BlackBerry priv with physical keyboard
 

mhinc

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Dec 27, 2012
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That is why if you want true security blackberry phones are only option

Posted via BlackBerry priv with physical keyboard

That is not even CLOSE to the truth anymore. Androids are just as secure if not more. Your PRIV is running Android OS!
Blackberry is slowly dying, major companies and institutions that depended on Blackberry for their security have left and moved
to Android. The US Navy being one of them. Mind you it was a switch to Apple and Android, still not trusting of Blackberry anymore,
but even more so, they are unreliable with their updates. And constantly fall behind the times.
I was a die hard blackberry user back in the day but switched due to their lack of ability to keep to their schedules and promises
again and again
 

bitek

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Jul 5, 2012
347
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That is not even CLOSE to the truth anymore. Androids are just as secure if not more. Your PRIV is running Android OS!
Blackberry is slowly dying, major companies and institutions that depended on Blackberry for their security have left and moved
to Android. The US Navy being one of them. Mind you it was a switch to Apple and Android, still not trusting of Blackberry anymore,
but even more so, they are unreliable with their updates. And constantly fall behind the times.
I was a die hard blackberry user back in the day but switched due to their lack of ability to keep to their schedules and promises
again and again
I like my priv thank you. So far so good. I feel like a rebel owning priv
 

Cuulio

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May 6, 2016
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People don't really think at all how much information they have stored in their phones and that they give access to different apps in their data without a second thought. Of course in most cases there is no need to be alarmed, but it would be a surprise if someday in the future there wouldn't be a big breach in security.
 

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