Apple Users and Their Data: The Connection to the NSA and Russian Government
Apple prides itself on its stringent privacy policies and resistance to US law enforcement and intelligence agencies. This reputation developed after high-profile standoffs with the FBI as they demanded help cracking devices used by mass shooters. These milestones left Apple with an unshakable message of anti-collaboration with the State, but recent events suggest otherwise.
Kaspersky, a well-known cybersecurity company, revealed that Apple had a vulnerability that allowed the hardware giant to remotely siphon off the data of its users. Kaspersky’s claim raises questions about how much data the US government can inexplicably and unknowingly access through its collaboration with major tech companies.
The announcement coincided with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accusing Apple of colluding with US intelligence, where the FSB claims that their discovery attests to the close cooperation of the US company Apple with the domestic intelligence community. It confirms that the declared policy of guaranteeing the confidentiality of the personal data of the users of Apple Devices is not true, making people doubt Apple’s privacy promises.
Kaspersky vs. Apple: The Crux of the Matter
Kaspersky Labs is a Russian cybersecurity company that provides solutions that safeguard sensitive information and limit the spread of global malware. Kaspersky is famous for its cybersecurity solutions, including its antivirus offerings, that protect a broad range of devices, networks, and cloud services.
In 2015, Kaspersky testified to Russian lawmakers that Apple has a backdoor into its iPhone. Apple denied these accusations, confirmed that they refuse to cooperate with any government agency, and claimed to have had no knowledge of such a door.
In 2022, Kaspersky announced that they found a critical flaw within iOS devices that allowed Apple to steal users’ data secretly. This flaw could give Apple access to users’ emails, messages, phone calls, photos, location information, and other sensitive data without them knowing. The result of this discovery caused Apple’s reputation of confidentiality to come into question.
Apple stated that any such access to user data would be a violation of their privacy policy and company values, and they would never allow the unauthorized access of data by any government entity. However, there is no clear evidence that would expose the company’s clandestine collaboration with the US intelligence agencies.
Russian Federal Security Service’s Accusations
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and other Russian security services have long been suspicious of Western software companies, especially US companies, for fear of espionage and cyberwarfare.
In 2022, the FSB accused Apple of colluding with the US intelligence community and fabricating its commitment to protecting user data. The statement affirmed that Apple’s actions allow the US National Security Agency (NSA) and “partners in anti-Russian activities” to target “anyone of interest to the White House” as well as US citizens.
Despite the accusations, the statement was not accompanied by any technical details of the NSA spying campaign described, nor any evidence that Apple colluded in it. Apple denied the allegations, reiterating its commitment to user privacy. Furthermore, The US intelligence community has also yet to comment on the matter.
Conclusion: What does this mean for Apple users?
With the publicized accusations that Apple has been sharing user data with NSA, users of Apple products are left wondering what else the Federal government might know about them and what Apple may or may not know about the Federal Government’s data mining efforts.
Thanks to the recent revelations about the grave vulnerability Kaspersky found in iOS and the vulnerability of the phone itself, Apple’s unshakable message seems to be walking on shaky ground. Although the messages of anti-collaboration with the State are still catchy headlines, it’s essential to continue asking what more is happening behind the scenes.
Summary:
– Kaspersky found vulnerabilities in iOS that allowed Apple to collect data from its users.
– This sparked the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to accuse Apple of colluding with the US Intelligence community and debunking Apple’s commitment to user privacy.
– Apple denied the claims and reiterated its commitment to user privacy.
– The statements of anti-collaboration with the State are catchy, but the question remains, what is happening behind the scenes to protect the privacy of users?
Additional piece:
Despite the many guarantees tech companies make concerning the privacy and security of their users, we’re left to wonder to what extent these promises are being kept. As businesses approach the complexities of data sharing and collaboration with the State, where does this leave users?
This Kaspersky and Apple fiasco is a wake-up call. More than ever, stakeholders demand to know what significant data privacy issues are, who’s being affected, and what commercial businesses are doing to protect user privacy.
Tech companies might have the biggest data heists, but they aren’t the only ones. Healthcare providers, financial services, and government bodies keep vast amounts of sensitive information on users. As businesses become increasingly complex and digitally savvy, the laws and regulations regarding privacy and data protection remain inconsistent.
There’s a strong urge to take a data-centric perspective by prioritizing user data management and privacy. Organizations should collect only what is necessary, tell users what data they’re collecting, and what operations they’ll use that data for. Furthermore, it’s essential to keep the data secure once it’s collected and maintain its privacy at all costs.
In this digital age, privacy is no longer a perk but a right, and users deserve to know when their data is shared or exploited. As businesses continue to expand into new markets, this will be an essential issue that will need some form of monitoring or control to safeguard user privacy.
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“iOS security, once breached, makes it really hard to detect these attacks,” says Wardle, who was previously a staffer at the NSA. At the same time, he adds that attackers would have to assume that any brazen campaign to target Kaspersky would eventually be discovered. “In my opinion, this would be reckless for an NSA attack,” he says. “But it shows that hacking Kaspersky was either incredibly valuable to the attacker or whoever it was probably has other iOS zero days as well. If he only has one exploit, he won’t risk his one remote iOS attack hacking Kaspersky.”
The NSA declined WIRED’s request for comment on the FSB announcement or the Kaspersky findings.
With the iOS 16 release In September 2022, Apple introduced a special security setting for the mobile operating system known as lockdown mode that intentionally restricts usability and access to features that can be porous within services like iMessage and Apple WebKit. It is not known whether lockdown mode would have prevented the attacks that Kaspersky observed.
The Russian government’s alleged discovery of Apple’s collusion with US intelligence “attests to the close cooperation of the US company Apple with the domestic intelligence community, in particular the US NSA, and confirms that the declared policy of guaranteeing the confidentiality of the personal data of the users of Apple Devices is not true”, it affirms an FSB statementadding that it would allow the NSA and “partners in anti-Russian activities” to target “anyone of interest to the White House” as well as US citizens.
The FSB statement was not accompanied by any technical details of the NSA spying campaign described, nor any evidence that Apple colluded in it.
Apple has historically resisted pressure to provide a “back door” or other vulnerability to US law enforcement or intelligence agencies. That stance was most publicly demonstrated at Apple’s high-profile 2016 standoff with the FBI about the office’s demand that Apple help crack an iPhone used by San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. The standoff only ended when the FBI found its own method of accessing iPhone storage with the help from Australian cybersecurity firm Azimuth.
Despite the fact that its announcement came on the same day as the FSB claims, Kaspersky has so far not claimed that the Operation Triangulation hackers who attacked the company were working on behalf of the NSA. The cybersecurity firm has also not attributed the hack to Equation Group, Kaspersky’s name for state-sponsored hackers it previously linked to highly sophisticated malware, including Stuxnet and Duqu, tools believed to be created and deployed by the NSA and US allies.
Kaspersky said in a statement to WIRED that, “Given the sophistication of the cyber espionage campaign and the complexity of the analysis of the iOS platform, further investigation will surely reveal more details on the matter.”
US intelligence agencies and US allies would, of course, have every reason to want to look over Kaspersky’s shoulder. Apart from years of US government warnings that Kaspersky has ties to the Russian government, company researchers have long demonstrated a willingness to track and expose hacking campaigns carried out by western governments that Western cybersecurity companies do not. In 2015, in fact, Kaspersky revealed that his own network had been breached by hackers who used a variant of the Duqu malware, suggesting a link to the Equation Group and thus potentially the NSA.
That history, combined with the sophistication of the malware that targeted Kaspersky, suggests that as far-fetched as the FSB’s claims are, there are good reasons to imagine that Kaspersky intruders could have ties to a government. But if you hack into one of the world’s most prolific trackers of state-sponsored hackers, even with transparent and hard-to-detect iPhone malware, he can expect to get caught sooner or later.
https://www.wired.com/story/kaspersky-apple-ios-zero-day-intrusion/
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