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I think that the idea of out-of-the-box privacy/security against even a semi-competent adversary on any computer (especially a mobile device) is completely fict

by air7 8y ago

I think that the idea of out-of-the-box privacy/security against even a semi-competent adversary on any computer (especially a mobile device) is completely fictitious, and these hack stories play an important role in helping people realize that. Consider the thousands of people around the world that are involved in making phones in design, hardware, software, manufacturing, signal providers, platform providers, app writers to name a few. Any of them could be malicious actors or accidentally introduce exploitable bugs. The idea that such a complex stack can shield you from very smart and resourceful people that are actively trying to peek though is not reasonable. Everyone, especially people that are "annoying" to powerful entities (corporate or government), should assume that everything they do with their mobile phone is accessible to the people they hope it isn't.

graeme 8y ago
That a good, cautious stance. That said, thus may not be a good example of it. We don't know the imessage bug, but a big one was patched in ios 9.3.3, released July 18, 2016. Meanwhile, the article says this exploit got a lot of people in 2016/2017. So, presumably simply updating software would have protected a lot of the victims in this case. The higher up in adversary skill level you go, the less this works. But up to a reasonably high level simply having up to date software thwarts most adversaries, no? And conversely, if you have very out of date software, even incompetent adversaries can break in.