iPhone-Monitoring Crackers Also Targeted Android and Windows, Targeted Ethnic Group in China (forbes.com) 25
"The unprecedented attack on Apple iPhones revealed by Google this week was broader than first thought," reports Forbes:
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation said that Google's own Android operating system and Microsoft Windows PCs were also targeted in a campaign that sought to infect the computers and smartphones of the Uighur ethnic group in China. That community has long been targeted by the Chinese government, in particular in the Xinjiang region, where surveillance is pervasive.
Google's and Microsoft's operating systems were targeted via the same websites that launched the iPhone hacks, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. That Android and Windows were targeted is a sign that the hacks were part of a broad, two-year effort that went beyond Apple phones and infected many more than first suspected. One source suggested that the attacks were updated over time for different operating systems as the tech usage of the Uighur community changed...
The attacks appear to form part of a mass surveillance operation taking place on Uighur civilians, who've faced various forms of persecution in Xinjiang. Surveillance cameras are scattered across the region and facial recognition is prevalent.
Google's and Microsoft's operating systems were targeted via the same websites that launched the iPhone hacks, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. That Android and Windows were targeted is a sign that the hacks were part of a broad, two-year effort that went beyond Apple phones and infected many more than first suspected. One source suggested that the attacks were updated over time for different operating systems as the tech usage of the Uighur community changed...
The attacks appear to form part of a mass surveillance operation taking place on Uighur civilians, who've faced various forms of persecution in Xinjiang. Surveillance cameras are scattered across the region and facial recognition is prevalent.
Recent british documentary (Score:4, Interesting)
The british ITV documentary Undercover: Inside China's Digital Gulag https://docuwiki.net/index.php... [docuwiki.net] covers the Uighur surveillance and Huawei, it's quite enlightening.
Re: Recent british documentary (Score:2)
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There are 3000 Uygur part of Al Qaeda(rebranded a few times to Al Nusra and HTS) in Idlib. How the hell did they arrive there?
Uygur terrorism is not an excuse for the Chinese it is a real concern because the Uygur are what is called a 'pressure point', a way for the US to destabilize China. Hong Kong is another one.
This lumping together is a standard approach of looking at things with minimal cognitive dissonance: 'the chinese are doing despicable things AND they are doing them just because they are evil an
Diversity is NOT Strength (Score:3)
No, they have a reason — they don't subscribe to the theory, that "Diversity is Strength". It is not — it is an expensive luxury.
So expensive, China don't want to pay for it, so they are trying to assimilate everyone for there to be exactly one ethnicity in the whole China.
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That is always present in the background, nationalism trumps ethnicity in ways that are very oppressive. It doesn't explain the current urgency in cracking down on the Uygur.
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The current 'urgency' turns out to be a Patriot Act in a country where there is no bill of rights and no restrictions on how government can treat the people it governs over.
Imagine what the US would be like if after 9/11 there had been no restraint on the government's response.
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Roosevelt's reaction to Pearl Harbor was quite unrestrained in practice — instead of protecting the Japanese-Americans, as we've done with the Arabs, Persians, Sikhs and other "terrorist-looking" folks under Bush, they were summarily detained, losing freedom and property.
It was bad, but not horrible — and you still love him anyway.
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That could describe the situation. But one thing I object to is the idea that there is no external reason at all for this patriot act. Another is that there was no real terrorism threat in the Uyghur community. And I should spell it Uyghur.
And as far as the US is concerned, 9/11 was entirely considered an external matter, and I haven't seen any constraint there. 9/11 was a fabulous opportunity to make some things happen.
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The urgency comes from their having a religious belief strong enough to compete with the nationalist/government dogma. Falun Gong — none of whom were terrorists — were targeted for the same reasons...
Yes, Uygurs were Muslim for generations, but their willingness to die for their beliefs and those beliefs being contrary to the government's is what's making it a particularly acute problem.
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They throw the adults in concentration camps mostly for no reason other than their ethnicity
It is more for culture than ethnicity. If you grow a beard, go to Friday prayers, speak Uyghur, and wear a fez, you are going to camp.
If you shave, wear appropriate clothing, and speak Mandarin in public, you will be fine.
The Dungan [wikipedia.org] and Hui [wikipedia.org] ethnicities went through a similar assimilation process in the past.
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Yep, this isn't the first culture the Chinese has exterminated
The Hui and Dungan cultures have not been exterminated. There are Hui mosques in every major city in China, and it is easy to find halal restaurants.
But they are not separatists. The Hui speak Mandarin, and consider themselves Chinese. The Dungan still have their own language, and consider themselves culturally distinct from the Han majority, but have no separatist movement.
The only recent culture that has been exterminated is that of the Manchus. The Manchu language [wikipedia.org] is nearly dead, and Manchus have bee
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Do you know how islamisation works? A certain group of worshippers keeps constantly demanding special rights, such as enforced gender separation, being allowed to wear religious symbols on duty, or animal cruelty, all based on being a religious minority. The religion keeps pushing itself upon society. Should majority be reached, all other faiths have to pay extra for protection or be exterminated. It's been documented quite a few times in the last centuries. This is the Chinese answer to that islamisation,
Use proper evil to be stupidly underhand (Score:5, Interesting)
So Google's security team, having uncovered genuinely wicked behaviour by the Chinese state, then attempted to make out that only Apple devices were affected as some kind of "Android devices are more secure" play? That's pathetic behaviour on their part if accurate
Re:Use proper evil to be stupidly underhand (Score:5, Insightful)
Googles reputation has taken a monster dive, all the entirely B$ feels good marketing is failing and so, attack all competitors is the new game. Two for one, right here, attack Apple and attack China/Huawei (how dare they do their own OS).
This is China we are talking about, they want to hack your device, they come to your front door, demand your device for some legal reason (can't lie it must connect to the system) and load it right on there, right in your face, no sneaky hacking required, they want to install it, they will install right to your face and monitor and report on your reaction to the install.
As hate grows for Google and all it privacy invasion and censorship bullshit, so it will find all sorts of reasons to attack all possible digital competitors and of course make sure that information hits permanent number '1', in all searches as all of google's nefarious disappear out of search and every where else on Google's platforms.
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Read TFA more carefully. Some anonymous sources say that the sites involves also contained Android and Windows exploits, but doesn't say they were successful. Probably very old vulnerabilities that were long ago mitigated.
If anything this sounds more like some Apple PR spin trying to make out that they weren't the only victims, completely lacking any evidence that any Android of Windows device was compromised. Sadly their FUD seems to be working.
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A lot of people buy the Apple gadget and acknowledge they have paid more explicitly because of their perceived increase in personal security. It should be no surprise that if a breeze blows over the playing card castle that an immediate and vigorous response is elicited.
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Anonymous Sources (Score:1)
I must have missed something. It says Google only saw iOS attacks, but these mystery people make broad unsubstantiated claims. Seems like a look over there in an effort to distract that iPhones have been giving away root access through the monopolistic Safari install.
Tell the protesters in Hong Kong . . . (Score:3)
. . . that their phones are probably also being monitored.
Of course, if they are properly organized, they could use this as a disinformation source. Send around a bunch of messages about blocking the Hong Kong harbor. The police go there. And then go to the airport instead.
Anonymous Sources (Score:2)
Anonymous sources are telling us it's all the chinese government's doing. I think these anonymous sources have a little calendar with an item for every day : "announce nefarious chinese plot".
iPhone-Monitoring Crackers (Score:1)
iPhone-Monitoring Crackers is the name of my new KKK alert app.
Racist headline (Score:1)
iPhone-Monitoring Crackers....
I fail to see what their race has to do with this.