Here's something to keep in mind just ahead of Apple's likely announcement of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c tomorrow: According to the English version of Der Spiegel on Sept. 9, the NSA has already learned how to use smartphone data for tracking and hacking. This information was provided by last week's NSA leaks from Edward Snowden.
The reports given to Der Spiegel show that as the NSA began developing teams dedicated to each brand of smartphone. One team was dedicated to studying iPhones and their OS, another team was for Android phones and a third team was dedicated to Blackberry phones.
The appeal of the smartphone, as Spiegel notes, is that most users show very little worry about about what kind of protection measures they use. Information stored on a smartphone can often reveal more about a person than information on a computer. Some users will have banking and credit card info, contact information and who you interact with regularly, location information, passwords and interests.
And the NSA noted that at least with the iPhone, access to the physical phone was completely unnecessary. Backup files are one of the greatest sources of information for when the NSA would like to access smartphone info. As iPhones are synchronized with a user’s computer, all the NSA needs is to hack into that computer and then they are granted access to backup files of photos, calls, contacts and text message drafts.
The NSA also has access to app information through surveillance. Apps they are particularly interested in include Facebook and Yahoo Messenger, Google Earth and a mapping feature. For mapping, of course the NSA is interested in the geolocation ability of smartphones and until Apple fixed the bug, the NSA was able to track a user’s movements over time. Apple has now set that time limit for keeping information at seven days.
Both Apple and Google have stated they do not fall under the category of companies who allow the NSA a backdoor to their information. This news is also particularly startling, as PC World notes , because the Blackberry devices were considered the most secure. However, the report indicates that the NSA is in fact able to access BlackBerry information and has been able to since 2009.
In terms on Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 announcement, it at least appears that the NSA plays a game of catch up for newly released phones, which would mean that data and info on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c would be relatively secure with a new operation system. However, depending how different the OS is, the NSA could catch on pretty quickly. In the end, there would be a short time limit on how long that information would remain untouched by the NSA.
What are your thoughts on the most recent Edward Snowden NSA leaks? Is this information surprising? Should U.S. citizens be doing more to demand transparency from government agencies?
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