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Iphone Government

Russia Bans Thousands of Officials From Using iPhones Over Spying Fears (gizmodo.com) 109

Posted by EditorDavid from the nyet dept.
Gizmodo reports: Thousands of top Russian officials and state employees have reportedly been banned from using iPhones and other Apple products over concerns they could serve as surreptitious spying tools for Western intelligence agencies...

Russia's trade minister, according to a Financial Times report, said the new ban will take effect Monday, July 17. The move affects a variety of Apple products from iPhones, iPads, and laptops, and builds off of similar restrictions already put in place by the digital development ministry and state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec. Kremlin officials also advised staff working on Vladimir Putin's 2024 presidential re-election campaign against using a variety of US-developed smartphones over similar espionage conveners earlier this year...

Russian intelligence officials last month accused the US National Security Agency of hacking into thousands of Russian-owned iPhones and targeting the phones of foreign diplomats based in Russia... To be clear, Russian officials still haven't provided any clear evidence proving the alleged US conspiracy. Apple has also publicly denied the claims and recently told the Times it "has never worked with any government to build a backdoor into any Apple product, and never will."
The Financial Times got a skeptical response to that from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council and one of the country's fiercest hardliners. "When a big tech compan...â.âclaims it does not co-operate with the intelligence community — either it lies shamelessly or it is about to [go bust]."

Thanks to Slashdot reader dovthelachma for sharing the news.
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Russia Bans Thousands of Officials From Using iPhones Over Spying Fears More

Russia Bans Thousands of Officials From Using iPhones Over Spying Fears

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  • probably a good call

    • Yeah, re: "When a big tech company claims it does not co-operate with the intelligence community — either it lies shamelessly or it is about to [go bust]." - He's not wrong there. National Security letters don't require back doors & don't Apple collect all kinds of metrics from their phones that'd be very useful to the US govt & its allies?

      • Whenever Kremlin says something, you have to remember that it is actually always reflecting their own thoughts. Here it is very clear, from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council:

        When a big tech company claims it does not co-operate with the intelligence community â" either it lies shamelessly or it is about to [go bust].

        This is Medvedev quite openly admitting that in russia, all big tech companies co-operate with "intelligence community" (i.e. Kremlin), or they will be busted, oops, I mean, go bust.

        • The Kremlin, the NSA, CSEC, etc., all do it. They even have agreements with each other to get around those pesky restrictions on the military spying on your own population & its politicians, corporate executives, etc.. According to Edward Snowden, at least 90% of the US' intelligence community's spying is industrial espionage.

  • yeah, dont trust Apple (Score:5, Funny)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @11:48AM (#63708918)
    but all those android phones with google's software on it is all safe to use, gotcha.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by xwin ( 848234 )
      Android source is available so it can be audited and compiled from source, removing any questionable code. Apple is closed source. So in fact Russian officials are much smarter than you.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        but all those android phones with google's software on it is all safe to use, gotcha.

        Android source is available so it can be audited and compiled from source, removing any questionable code. Apple is closed source. So in fact Russian officials are much smarter than you.

        GP seems to be unaware Russia did ban Android already, as in the OS binaries from western sources.
        They said no to Android OS in March, and Apple everything in July. So yea GPs comments are not smart or even close to reflecting reality.

        You are also completely spot on. Russia already said at the time that they plan to have their own Android OS/fork built from sources by a Russian company NCC, and supposedly use only Chinese manufactured phone hardware.

        https://www.wired.com/story/ru... [wired.com]

        I personally question i

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kmoser ( 1469707 )
        Assuming you trust the compiler [uwaterloo.ca].

        • Assuming you trust the compiler.

          And assuming you trust the compiler used to compile the compiler.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by micheas ( 231635 )

            Assuming you trust the compiler.

            And assuming you trust the compiler used to compile the compiler.

            GCC can compile itself without another compiler. (or at least it used to be able to.) It was a non-trivial activity

      • Now which phone has an unlocked bootloader to allow this?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Nation states can have a tender for specific secure phones from manufacturer that would be supplied with specific software packages. Most don't bother, but some large ones do.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Except that they didn't ban them long ago.

        The fact that Russian officials are still using iphones does go a long way to explain how CIA knew specific details of everything from Ukraine invasion date to specific locations of each general back when GMLRS were a new thing on the battlefield.

    • but all those android phones with google's software on it is all safe to use, gotcha.

      All those Android phones with google's software modified by Huawei, or Xaiomi or whoever.

      Even more secure!

    • There have been a few cases where someone sold supposedly "secure" phones to criminals which then were hundred percent cracked. In one case it was actually some US agency creating that phone. All Android. All with harsh warnings to avoid iPhones because they are not secure.

  • Timely news (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @11:50AM (#63708920)

    > the new ban will take effect Monday, July 17

    First reported on /. Sunday July 23rd.

    Please, tell us about the horseless buggy coming soon and those darn candleless streetlights. Soon I hope. I don't want to miss the fresh news on a great new thing.

    Also who gives a shit about iPhones in Russia? They're a world agressor engaged in the second like nazi takeover of a neighboring country in five years. After Crimea and Ukraine they'll go after Poland. Their government should burn in eternal fire like the devil's butthole. Nobody gives a shit which iCrap they use.

    • Re:Timely news (Score:5, Interesting)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @12:12PM (#63708988) Journal

      After Crimea and Ukraine they'll go after Poland.

      "after".

      The most effective things Russia has managed so far with it's military is prove to the world that their propaganda about their army was more effective than their army and then to degrade their fignting capability somewhat further.

      I think it's very unlikely that Russia will be able to manage more than a stalemate in Ukraine, but if somehow Ukraine collapses, they'd have the combined might of NATO plus the whichever Russia bordered EU member states haven't joined NATO yet, since Poland has two mutual defense treaties. I think they'd like to go after Poland, but they lack the juice to do so. Georgia and Kazakhstan have no such protection, so I reckon they'd be next.

      • Oh, I think Russia has lost.

        Germany didn't lose on D-Day.
        Japan didn't lose the day Hiroshima was flattened with a nuclear weapon.

        Both lost over a year before that.

        Russia lost over a year ago now.

        This is just the end game.

      • Transnistria will be next if Russia manages to capture Odesa. The people there want to be part of Russia. They are among the group called the Commonwealth of Unrecognized States as a result of the slipshod dissolution of the Soviet Republic. Western/Capitalist powers were in a psychedelic domination frenzy during that era, which is what lead to much of the conflict we're seeing today. The people who live in these regions didn't get a say in what state they would live in. It's similar to the way the collapse

        • Wait so the Russian empire v2, aka the Soviet "union" collapsed and that's somehow the west.ca fault.

          There was no domination frenzy, there didn't need to be. All those Warsaw pact countries that rushed to join NATO did it because they fucking hate Russia and what it did to them when they were under its dominion. They were desperate to get protection and as far away from their former imperial masters as possible.

          And the west didn't "choose" those borders, they are chosen sms sometimes fought over by the stat

          • I didn't make any apologies for Russia. I just stated facts that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was rushed and pressured, which lead to borders that the residents of those places were unhappy with. Go read the history of Transnistria, South Ossetia and why they have been autonomous since 1991. Acknowledging history is not "apologetic." Idealism, divorced from history and reality will lead to conflict and confusion with the real world as you try to hammer people into your fantastical conception of the w

            • Fuck off Russia apologist.

              You said " Western/Capitalist powers were in a psychedelic domination frenzy during that era, which is what lead to much of the conflict we're seeing today."

              These border disputes as you call them have nothing to do with "the west" because "the west" didn't set the borders. The soviet union collapsed and the remaining fragments negotiated or fought among themselves to set the borders.

      • The most effective things Russia has managed so far with it's military is prove to the world that their propaganda about their army was more effective than their army

        Yep, now that the front has moved from Ukraine soil, Russia has gone from having the second best army in Ukraine to the second best in Russia. But really someone should slap Putin with an environmentalist award, no single human has done more to get Europe unhooked from cheap Russian gas, certainly not some accord no one listens to. That’s an accomplishment that shouldn’t be overlooked.

      • Russia is in the process of denaz-ifying and demilitarizing Russia.
        And one thing is for sure: Russia will never be admitted into NATO after this.

  • They're not wrong (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @12:02PM (#63708948)

    I wouldn't trust ANY phone whose battery you cannot remove and / or where you cannot physically disconnect the microphone / camera / GPS module.

    Make fun of it all you like, but not only are you holding a Surveillance Systems wet dream in your hand, you were excited to pay for it.

    • Re: They're not wrong (Score:4, Funny)

      by Archangel_Azazel ( 707030 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @01:17PM (#63709160) Homepage Journal

      And possibly stood in line for a very long time just to get the iWatchU 17!

      This reminds me of whenever I have to deal with conspiracy theorists.
      "Teh goobamint wants to inject microchips in that there vaxine HELL NO!"
      - posted from the GPS enabled, always on and with you surveillance device you can't even put down long enough to take a shit.

    • Make fun of it all you like, but not only are you holding a Surveillance Systems wet dream in your hand, you were excited to pay for it.

      And yet people insist I am a crazy conspiracy theorist when I say it. Hm.

  • apple and android are both american. You can be sure Uncle Sam is listening to anything with iOS and Android. Just like Uncle Xi is listening to everything on tiktok.

    The problem for Russia is that there are basically no alternatives. I remember when Russia’s STEM capabilities were just as good as the US, but that was 30 years ago. The Russians have been letting their capabilities rot for 30 years.

    The US knows more about Russian troop movements than Putin does.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )
      China missed a great opportunity to sell Huawei gear to Russia.

    • Russia can compile their own russia approved version of the android system. Apple is closed source.
      Russia also requires certain apps come preinstalled on their phones.
      They are a full version of Android behind the rest of the world now.
      And Samsung complied with their demands for certain firmware updates.

    • The problem for Russia is that there are basically no alternatives.

      Russian government has been using SailfishOS https://sailfishos.org/ [sailfishos.org] (under the same AuroraOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ). It's a pure linux distribution descendent of Nokia MeeGoo developed by Jolla from Finland, which which Russia has had (until recently) very good relations. SailfishOS works officially on Sony Xperia phones that don't have the bands for use in USA, so people in USA have no idea it exists (there are community ports as well on other devices, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] an

      • Besides RHEL subscribers, who would want to use any kind of Linux distribution which is not publicly mirrored worldwide to prevent exactly the kind of cutting off of updates you are describing?

        • 1) The distro is publicly mirrored on github. What Russia is cut off from is the auto-update mechanism. The Russian government services could be, or could be not, enough organized to fork and deploy their own updates. 2) The answer is: Jolla subscribers. Why would RH be the only case allowed to live with a subscription model? Jolla has a market as a distro used by automakers for entertainment systems, also big corporates who don't trust Android/Apple.

          Also, I find your point very weak; companies and governme

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )

      Russia's STEM capabilities were good about 35 years ago when they still had the rest of the Soviet republics.

      When you look around who actually invented stuff and moved the country, you'll find an awful lot of Georgians, Ukrainians, people from the Balitc states and surprisingly few "real" Russian.

      In other words, Russia is the dregs that's left over when the rest decided to bail and no longer allow them to mooch off them.

  • They're not wrong (Score:3)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @12:05PM (#63708962)

    Even if you trust that Apple isn't logging conversations and you have perfect end-to-end messaging encryption, there's all sorts of other stuff they're openly gathering that you can bet your ass the intelligence community can access directly or by secret order.

    Given that a lot of Russians seem to be giving up valuable intelligence by compulsive social media posting, I'm not sure that's their biggest security issue.

  • strava (Score:3)

    by bugs2squash ( 1132591 ) on Sunday July 23, 2023 @12:15PM (#63708998)
    I didn't know strava [cnn.com] was an apple-only app.

  • Nuts (Score:2)

    by mendax ( 114116 )

    And the Russian government thinks that Android phones are any more secure than iPhones? I beg to differ! I suspect that the NSA can tunnel into just about any phone it wants to given sufficient time to attack the problem. Keep in mind that both iOS and Android are very sophisticated pieces of software. It's impossible to plug up all the holes. Something is bound to be overlooked. And almost nothing (and I suspect none at all) of the current Linux kernel used in Android has yet to be rewritten in Rust

    • I find that Russia engages in a lot of doublespeak. When Russia says they are concerned that iPhones are susceptible to spying, I would take it to mean that they are concerned that iPhones are not as susceptible to spying as other phones, especially spying by the Russian government. Putin needs to keep tabs on all Russian government workers.

  • When China says, "play by our rules or else", Apple has no qualms helping China hunt dissidents. Why would the US government be any different?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by micheas ( 231635 )

      The US government has some restrictions on it that are self imposed which make the direct request less likely.

      That said, I'm sure the NSA has many zero-day root exploits that they can use by sending an SMS to any iPhone they want making Apples cooperation a non-issue.

  • Hundreds of officials with iPhones fall out of windows.

  • ..and Putler takes something away.

    Place bets on what will be next....

    *Lives of opposition notwithstanding.

  • Yeah, re: "When a big tech company claims it does not co-operate with the intelligence community â" either it lies shamelessly or it is about to [go bust]."

    Those are the choices Putin gives them in Russia. And CEOs of bankrupt big tech companies get fired, permanently.

  • The Financial Times got a skeptical response to that from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council and one of the country's fiercest hardliners. "When a big tech compan...â.âclaims it does not co-operate with the intelligence community — either it lies shamelessly or it is about to [go bust]."
    --

    I like the above. It shows thats how it probably works in Russia, regardless how it works in the rest of the world.

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