NSA/Huawei/Apple

There has been a lot written about Apple's invlolvement with NSA spying revealed by Edward Snowden, including PRISM, DROPOUTJEEP, and bugs in IOS and OS operating systems, as well as stories about Angry Birds, leaky apps such as Google Maps and many other revelations in the Snowden documents.

Here is computer security expert and journalist Jacob Appelbaum talking NSA revelations including DROPOUTJEEP used for APPLE products.

So DROPOUTJEEP, so you can see right there. So, SMS, contact list retrieval, voicemail, hot microphone, camera capture, cell tower location. Cool. Do you think Apple helped them with that? I don’t know. I hope Apple will clarify that. I think it’s really important that Apple doesn’t.
Here’s a problem. I don’t really believe that Apple didn’t help them. I can’t prove it yet, but they literally claim that any time they target an iOS device, that it will succeed for implantation. Either they have a huge collection of exploits that work against Apple products, meaning that they are hoarding information about critical systems that American companies produce and sabotaging them, or Apple sabotaged it themselves. I’m not sure which one it is. I’d like to believe that since Apple didn’t join the PRISM program until after Steve Jobs died that maybe it’s just that they write shitty software. We know that’s true.

Marcy Wheeler is daily required reading by the way.......
Here is Marcy Wheeler (Blog, Twitter) writing about Apple's latest revelations on their security flaws

Marcy writes (emphasis is mine)

Now, if I were a leading device/consumer products company with an incentive to get consumers deeper into the cloud and living further and further online, particularly if I were a leading device/consumer products company sitting on mountains and mountains of cash, upon reading the report last September, I would throw bodies at my code to make sure I really was providing the security my customers needed to sustain trust. And given that this is a key part of the security on which that trust relies, I would think the mountains of cash device/consumer products company might have found this bug.

According to rumors, at least, this bug was not found by Apple with all its mountains and mountains of cash; it was found by a researcher.

But before Snowden's revelations, Congress was warning Americans about ANOTHER issue with a government spying on Americans through computer hardware and software, China's Huawei and ZTE companies, accused of being linked with Chinese intelligence and worries that the Chinese government could put in malware or other spying technology in their products that were sold in America.

So MY question is with all of these concerns about Huawei, why didn't Congress work as hard to protect Americans from other companies that had spying operations that could have targeted Americans??


Huawei is security threat says Mike Rogers

The panel’s probe coincides with increased U.S. warnings about digital spying by China. U.S. counterintelligence officials called China the world’s biggest perpetrator of economic espionage in a report last November, saying the theft of sensitive data in cyberspace is accelerating and jeopardizing an estimated $398 billion in U.S. research spending.

Oddly enough, this "update" on Huawei came at the end of the 60 Minutes piece on NSA, criticized as propoganda by many journalists covering the NSA and Snowden revelations Mike Rogers on 60 Minnutes

Here is the full CBS 60 Minutes NSA piece

And the criticism
"Don't be fooled by 60 Minutes NSA piece"

60 Minutes checks Journalistic skepticism at the door

60 Minutes does NSA PR

and of course don't forget Twitter, where many live tweeted the problems with the coverage NSA report outrage   NSA report


This could have been done by Apple itself, as in the past it has very publicly blocked some developers from bringing apps to the store that were deemed politically sensitive

10 Apps Blocked

From Democracy Now!

 Drone strikes info on your iPhone

A new iPhone app has been released that tracks every reported U.S. drone strike overseas. Over the course of two years, Apple rejected different versions no less than five times....Apple stalled the app’s approval for political reasons before Begley found a workaround....They said that it was excessively crude or objectionable content.

 Or in other cases there are apps simply not available in the store you use in your country, and you get the message

The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store link

 If Congress and Mike Rogers really cared about American's privacy, computer security, and America's intellectual property, as well as military hardware, we should

A) stop dragent surveillance
B) block Huawei and other hardware and software where there are security concerns because of foreign governments
C) prevent American's access to potentially harmful hardware and software

Otherwise it is just more hypocrisy and double talk from Congress and NSA about protecting Americans security and privacy.