Apple Denies Surveillance Claims Made By Russia's FSB

Apple is denying claims made by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) that it cooperated with American spies to surveil Russian iPhone users. From a report: In a statement, the company said it has "never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any apple product and never will."

Translation from PR speak:

[Powercntrl]

"Our software is full of gaping security holes, but we didn't put them there on purpose."

Re:Translation from PR speak:

[sound+vision]

Or maybe they did put them there on purpose, but there's no way to prove it. Plausible deniability is standard practice in spycraft. Only a handful of people at Apple would even know, and certainly not the dude writing their press release.

I believe it as much as I believe when they say "We care about the environment", "We care about forced labor in our supply chain", or "We care about your privacy." So, not at all.

Re:

[sound+vision]

Upon closer inspection, they actually referenced "apple products", not "Apple products". We can rest assured knowing that all their cider and applesauce is backdoor-free.

Posted from my â(TM)phone

Re:

[mangomama]

No doubt. The "good guys" have backdoor access to any Android or iPhone.

Re:

[blahplusplus]

(Classic "modded down for telling the truth" incident.)

Correct, it would be nice if people were actually well read into the history of war and mankind, the leaders of all states are obsessed with keeping tabs on everyone and everything. The world is at war even when it doesn't look like it is at war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

We should assume our computers are backdoored.

Re:

[newbie_fantod]

No need for secret operatives, we want to make some changes to your software and if you mention any of this to anyone we'll charge you with treason - have a nice day.

Cooperation or not the US probably did it

[nickmalthus]

Recall that a decade ago Cisco equipment exports were intercepted by the NSA [infoworld.com] and backdoors were added.

Re:

[khchung]

Recall that a decade ago Cisco equipment exports were intercepted by the NSA [infoworld.com] and backdoors were added.

More than that. NSL can come with a gag order that forbids Apple from revealing the fact that they complied with an NSL.

Also, won't "insert a backdoor" doesn't mean they won't keep existing security holes unpatched. There are just too many ways to weasel around the statement even if it was not a NSL compelled lie.

What's that saying again?

[nocoiner]

"Never take any speculation as being confirmed until a statement of denial about it is issued."

Re:

[quonset]

"Never take any speculation as being confirmed until a statement of denial about it is issued."

Or more simply, If Russia denies it, it's true.

Or perhaps...FUD

[sit1963nz]

I wonder if the Russian wealthy are getting upset that they can not buy a new iPhone because of Sanctions ?

So let's create FUD. Lets tell them they are being saved from the Nasty USA as the lead story rather than say the war is a disaster and the economy is tanking.

I wonder if they have an agreement with China to have backdoors in the Chinese supplied phones heading to Russia so they can track who in the army is leaking all these bad news stories...

Russia and honesty are poles apart.

Re:

[hdyoung]

I would bet a months paycheck that Russia’s not capable of domestically producing cellphones at scale. Not in any format that remotely resembles a current smartphone. They can barely even manage to manufacture small internal combustion engines. More likely, they will buy cheap Chinese-made android phones, which will be a) already compromised by the CCP and b) easily compromised by the NSA. The US has their finger on iPhones, no doubt about it. Nothing Uncle Sam or Tim Cook says will convince me otherw

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

There was a reason I put "domestically made" in quotes - they'll have that shit manufactured in China just like everyone else. And China will be happy to embed spyware into it, just like they (probably) do on all the other no-brand bullshit Android devices that get made.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you are very confused as to what the sanctions have done. The wealthy have absolutely no issues getting an iphone, the only thing that changed is they can't order it directly on the website. wife has god daughter in Moscow, she just purchased an Iphone 14 this week.

Uh oh, this means Apple added a back door

[egrass]

Note that the statement says Apple never worked with any government to add a back door, NOT that Apple never added a back door. This statement would still be true if Apple worked on its own to add a back door and then gave info to the US government on how to access it. Why not say 'Apple has never added any back door to its products' and whenever a third party is able to create one through a vulnerability error Apple works to close it promptly. Unless Apple did add a back door.

Putin's getting nervous

[quonset]

Between the Belgorod People's Republic asking for help to claim its soverignty from Russia, to Ukraine's counteroffensive about to steamroll through the lines of untrained mobiks, Putin is deperately looking about for anyone or anything to blame for the stunning failure of his entire regime.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Jembo]

Yeah, when you had ever seen a headline "X company CONFIRMS surveiling it's devices". Who in their right mind would confirm such things even if it's true, lol! If you are thinking your iPhone is not getting tracked, you're full time dellusional(probably more dellusional than me trying to run a half marathon by Run United https://rununited.com/ [rununited.com] without any prep)

Apple doesn't need back doors

[waspleg]

because [archive.is] they [theregister.com] do as [qz.com]
they're [nypost.com] told. [npr.org]

So...

[xlsior]

the company said it has "never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any apple product and never will."

There was no need to add something they already created of their own volition?