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1) Apple has shown substantial backbone in fighting against the US government when pressed to exploit a phone. 2) The other choice is a device made by a Chines
by zabuni 10y ago
1) Apple has shown substantial backbone in fighting against the US government when pressed to exploit a phone.
2) The other choice is a device made by a Chinese or Korean company with a semi-open operating system made by a US company.
3) Either device will have a totally closed baseband chip.
4) Deploying and maintaining secure Linux environment on a Laptop is a full time job that requires expertise journalists don't have.
5) Open versus closed source is a red herring. Everyone is using pre-compiled binaries.
- alasdair_ 10y ago>2) The other choice is a device made by a Chinese or Korean company with a semi-open operating system made by a US company. All iPhones are made in China by a Chinese company.
- zer0tonin 10y agoThey are made by Foxconn, which is a Taiwanese company.
- na85 10y agoDoes that make it meaningfully better?
- md_ 10y agoWhat are the options for someone who wants a fully trusted supply chain? Is there a modern smartphone made with provably secure hardware (and which I can verify is actually running that hardware and not some behave-alike SOC)? From my somewhat-naive perspective, it seems like the alternative is an Android phone made in China by a Chinese company, which seems not obviously superior.
- schoen 10y ago> 5) Open versus closed source is a red herring. Everyone is using pre-compiled binaries. With a very salutary trend toward reproducible builds, which will help prove a connection between the source and binaries. (Though it's taking years to get there.)
- marcosdumay 10y agoHum... > 1) Apple has shown substantial backbone in fighting against the US government when pressed to exploit a phone. And the phone was exploited anyway. The only thing that was established is that Apple must not be forced to help. > 2) The other choice is a device made by a Chinese or Korean company with a semi-open operating system made by a US company. That makes both alike. > 3) Either device will have a totally closed baseband chip. This is the one the iPhone got right. On the iPhones, it is insulated by a closed interface. > 4) Deploying and maintaining secure Linux environment on a Laptop is a full time job that requires expertise journalists don't have. Ditto for Android, iOS, Windows, OS/2, AIX, GNU/Hurd... And anything else you may think about. > 5) Open versus closed source is a red herring. Everyone is using pre-compiled binaries. Open source is a necessary condition for securing against any targeted attack. It's just far from sufficient. Also, pre-compiled binaries can help you. Anyway, both platforms are pretty much closed.
- tptacek 10y agoNo, open source is not a necessary condition for security. But we agree that it's insufficient, which is progress.