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Apple helped make 'top secret' iPod for US government
- macintux 6y agoSome limited discussion on this from a couple of days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24188791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24188791
- justinclift 6y agoAlso: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24205888 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24205888
- kn0where 6y agoSo Agent Cody Banks was realistic after all: https://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=16246907&mobile=0 https://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=16246907&mobile=0
- runako 6y agoBlogspam from https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ipod/ https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ip...
- csilverman 6y agoI look forward to the day when one of these makes an appearance on one of those prototype/collector forums. "So my friend who used to work at the DOE was getting rid of some stuff and he had this iPod, and it looks like a regular iPod but I took a look inside and does anybody know what the hell this is...?"
- coopsmgoops 6y agoProbably on Gizmodo. Steve Jobs will be rolling in his grave.
- reaperducer 6y agoI look forward to the day when one of these makes an appearance on one of those prototype/collector forums. It's surprising how frequently restricted computing devices end up in public hands. Through a relative who worked for a guy who knew a guy and so on, I ended up with the world's most awesome GRiD Compass back in the 80's. It was supposedly formerly used by someone in the Reagan administration, and had big stickers on the bottom listing all the countries where it was never to be used. I threw it away when I got my first IBM XT. Stupid of me.
- saagarjha 6y agoIt's interesting to see Apple prototypes with serial numbers on them crop up all over the place…
- gambiting 6y agoA whole bunch of Sony devkits have gone on auction at one time, because the company went into bankruptcy and appointed administrators just went ahead to sell all company property. Of course Sony protested saying that they can't sell the devkits, but the administrators basically told them to get in the long line of people with some kind of claim. It's company property it's getting sold.
- emiliobumachar 6y agoI'm missing some context. Why would Sony devkits be sensitive? What exactly do you mean by "devkit"? I though of those development kits with one specific processor you want to get familiar with, plus auxiliary hardware and software to help access it.
- cdcarter 6y agoYou're on the right track, but they're usually considered rentals not purchased property. The Apple ARM devkit Mac Mini, for example, has to be returned to Apple at the end of the preview.
- 6y ago
- dylan604 6y agoOr some drunk engineer leaves the device at at a bar.
- bnt 6y agoI still firmly believe it was a marketing stunt by Apple.
- serf 6y agoyeah, me too , but the 'Apple Police' aspect of that marketing stunt left me with a negative impression -- so I guess it wasn't an all-around net good advertising wise.
- dylan604 6y agoTo what purpose? To get people talking about the newest version of the iPhone? Don't think this stunt was required for that.
- kosherbeefcake 6y agoI remember reading a conspiracy that the iPhone 4 was left at that bar, because Samsung was about to announce the latest Galaxy phone. Apple did this to take the wind out of their sails.
- rangibaby 6y agoTo paraphrase a famous quote: Apple are not that dumb, and not that smart.
- sneak 6y agoThe drunk engineer is my friend, it was his birthday, and it wasn’t a stunt. He was authorized to have the device out for testing, and brought it with him to his birthday at a beer bar. You know the rest of the story. Apple is entirely familiar with the Osborne Effect.
- hcarvalhoalves 6y agoYou bet! Does anyone have the link to the story about the guy who found a Made in China power strip w/ a hidden bug inside?
- csilverman 6y agoNot sure if this is the story you're thinking of, but I do recall hearing a while ago about Chinese irons and kettles that came with some, er, undocumented features: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hacked-from-china-is-your-kettle-spying-on-you/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hacked-from-china-is-your-kettl...
- rockinghigh 6y agoYou can buy them: https://www.trackers-cam.com/en/gsm-spy-microphone/329-gsm-connected-spy-microphone-power-strip.html https://www.trackers-cam.com/en/gsm-spy-microphone/329-gsm-c... The power strip calls you as soon as it detects a sound.
- ArnoVW 6y agoI remember Christmas cards produced in China, containing secret 'help me' messages from prisoners that were used as cheap labor: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/23/790832681/6-year-old-finds-message-alleging-chinese-prison-labor-in-box-of-christmas-cards?t=1597872203460 https://www.npr.org/2019/12/23/790832681/6-year-old-finds-me...
- emptyparadise 6y agoThis makes me wonder, I know Linux can run on some iPods, but did anybody ever run homebrew apps or games on the native iPod OS?
- pronoiac 6y agoI remembered there were third-party games available on the iPod, but checking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_game , it doesn't look like an SDK ever made it to the public.
- emptyparadise 6y agoYeah, I'm amazed that there aren't any homebrew ones.
- netsharc 6y agoI would imagine the "OS" doesn't have a lot of graphical routines, just to draw text/menues, scroll bar (to indicate song progress) and some library to display images (for album covers). And that it boots straight into this player app, and it has no idea of how to load other apps...
- tantalor 6y agohttp://preserve.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.20/20.04/SnowDay/index.html http://preserve.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.20/20.04/Sn...
- aresant 6y ago__
- dannyw 6y agoThe limit on this is speed of internet transfers. It takes 2 days for me to run badblocks on my 16TB drive!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Nasrudith 6y agoGet this straight - it was essentially bribing four of their workers to make an "authenic" iPod that had added functionality to secretly gather it. An overpriced pork bespoke hardware hacking project, not adding bugs to every iPod produced or anything. If anything they would be annoyed not grateful over the covert poaching and they certainly would get blocked if they tried to sue anyone over it but the losses were petty/background cost of doing business anyway. There isn't any factual basis where that incident contribuites to that fallacious narrative. If I were a plumber and doing work on a CIA building they might do a background check so deep that it finds and analyzes any colon polyps to ensure I won't be planting any bugs in the plumbing but it doesn't mean "I am pretty much the CIA."
- ghshephard 6y agoEven less - it was asking for some tech support from Apple to learn how to hack Apple Hardware with their own (Bechtel) engineers - the actual hardware/software was done by Bechtel. Given this particular engineer is talking about it - they didn't have to undergo security clearance (if they had, they wouldn't be talking about it. Ever.) All apple did was provide a little bit of JTAG/Build/Source Code support. The rest was up to a third party.
- reaperducer 6y agoHere's the link to the original article about this, instead of the BBC's less interesting re-hash of someone else's work: https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ipod/ https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ip...
- corin_ 6y agoThat original source was on HN a couple of days ago with comments too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24188791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24188791 Side note: lots of people in the UK are boycotting the BBC today, one day only, as a protest against their use of the N-word on their TV news and subsequent refusal to apologise (until they then backed down after a prominent black presenter publicly resigned). So yes, please everyone click the original story not the BBC version, at least until tomorrow :)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- davb 6y agoTo add some context to the side-note, for those unfamiliar with the story, the BBC used that word in an editorial/journalistic context, quoting the racial abuse a man suffered after being intentionally hit with a car while waiting on the bus. The victim's family were determined that the BBC show pictures showing the extent of his injuries and quote, in full, the racist tirade he was subject to during the attack. Whether or not you agree with them using that word on a news report, I think the context and intent are really important.
- corin_ 6y agoYes you're right, sorry if anyone read my comment to imply that BBC actively used that word to describe a black person themselves. But it's pretty much accepted in the UK and especially UK media that if reporting on it, you say "the n word", especially if you're a white reporter. A lot of people were extremely offended, even in the context you've added, and the BBC have now acknowledged it was wrong. The reason for today's boycott is partly their delay (and initial defence), and partly a wide, subjective view of institutional racism among large parts of the BBC. This is obviously a very complex topic, but for now can't we at least agree that we don't need to hear the n-word purposefully spoken by BBC News?
- xxpor 6y agoI think the focus on nuclear power in the article is naive at best. Bechtel helps run the national labs, which work on (among other things) nuclear weapons and anti-proliferation. I would think it's more likely this would be for anti-proliferation work. Have a CIA asset walk near a suspected nuclear facility with this in their pocket while looking like a civilian. Collect radiation data, and if they get arrested or something, it's just an ipod.
- RandallBrown 6y agoIsn't that exactly what the article says?
- ehsankia 6y agoThat was my understanding too. What other "nuclear energy" related use would there be for a hidden Geiger counter?
- xxpor 6y agoNuclear power != Nuclear weapons, or preventing the spread of them.
- rangibaby 6y agoNuclear power is a prerequisite to nuclear weapons though. /edit: if you don’t want your country to be an international pariah
- mywittyname 6y agoThe first atomic bombs were dropped a few years before the first nuclear power plant came online.
- rangibaby 6y agoYes, but there weren’t pesky inspectors sneaking around with custom iPods then either
- ChuckNorris89 6y agoCan anyone be so kind as to explain to me why did Apple accept to do this work without contract and payment, as the blog describes? Engineer hours cost the company time they would otherwise invest in their current products in development. Why do it for free? It's not like the US Gov can't afford it.
- simonh 6y agoIt sounds like it was really just a few hours of one engineer’s time, when he didn’t have any imminent deadlines. Not enough to compromise any ongoing projects.
- niffydroid 6y agoProbably out of good faith. Can't be accused of not helping the US government. Also sets a bar of how much help they'll willing to offer. Maybe also wanted control over who had access to their information, rather give it to them then have it stolen
- giancarlostoro 6y agoNot to mention other defense / government agencies might come forward to Apple with projects.
- Invictus0 6y agoThere is a cultural precedent here with Graphing Calculator: https://www.pacifict.com/Story/ https://www.pacifict.com/Story/
- pkaye 6y ago> “I have a special assignment for you. Your boss doesn’t know about it. You’ll help two engineers from the US Department of Energy build a special iPod. Report only to me. So how does this work in weekly on-on-one meetings with his boss?
- tantalor 6y agoAnswered here: > My boss was told I was working on a special project and not to ask questions.
- thephyber 6y agoIf only I could figure out how to get that message to my boss...
- tantalor 6y agoEasy, have your boss's boss tell them.
- microtherion 6y agoIt should be noted that this situation is not all that uncommon at Apple. For pre-1.0 iOS work, e.g., often individual engineers on macOS teams were tapped to do iOS specific changes to their components without their managers having clearance to know about it. For the Mac Intel switch, the situation was even more curious, as the earlier work was carried out by a larger group of engineers, with little special secrecy, but the final stretch was done by a smaller subset of those engineers in strict secrecy, while the others were led to conclude that the effort had petered out. The difference in this case was, of course, that the client of the special project was apparently external…
- ianmobbs 6y agoHere's the link to the original article - https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ipod/ https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ip...
- ChuckMcM 6y agoIf you've looked at the open source particle detector[1] you see that the "sensor" can be a reverse biased diode. Nothing very fancy. [1] https://github.com/ozel/DIY_particle_detector https://github.com/ozel/DIY_particle_detector
- rohit89 6y ago> Only four people at Apple knew about this secret project. Me, the director of iPod Software, the vice president of the iPod Division, and the senior vice president of Hardware. Not even Steve Jobs? Shouldn't this have been his decision?
- garmaine 6y agoI doubt Steve Jobs would have submitted to the burdens of getting and retaining top secret clearance.
- philwelch 6y agoApparently he did in 1988. Things at NeXT must have been desperate: https://www.wired.com/2012/06/steve-jobs-security-clearance/ https://www.wired.com/2012/06/steve-jobs-security-clearance/ Edit: It actually says he got the clearance because Pixar was doing some government work at the time.
- getpost 6y agoJobs had a top secret clearance. https://www.informationweek.com/desktop/steve-jobs-the-fbi-file/d/d-id/1102747 https://www.informationweek.com/desktop/steve-jobs-the-fbi-f...
- garmaine 6y agoFor only about two years in the late 80’s.
- manmal 6y agoPlausible deniability is a great idea if the CEO has to testify before congress every once in a while.
- tosh 6y agotweet by Tony Fadell (iPod): Absolutely spot on David Shayer… This project was real w/o a doubt. There was whole surreal drama & interesting story about how this project was kicked off & then kept secret. The Case of the Top Secret iPod https://twitter.com/tfadell/status/1295727727606104064 https://twitter.com/tfadell/status/1295727727606104064
- AgloeDreams 6y ago(For those not in the know, Tony was the leader of iPod Projects back then, basically acting as full 100% confirmation of this story being true.)
- jacksonpollock 6y agowhat's an ipod?
- elchin 6y agoAssuming this is all true - how does something like this leak? Wouldn't someone go to prison for the leak?
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoReasonable possibility nobody involved signed an NDA or filled out any paperwork, given how unofficial it was. It's been fifteen years, it's likely the hardware in question is long deprecated in favor of covert hardware that looks like a modern smartphone or something.
- InitialLastName 6y agoRight, someone walking around carrying an iPod has gone from notable to mundane and back to notable. No longer the way to blend in.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoIt's also possibly one of the reasons we're so worried about Huawei here in the US right now: We know what our guys can do. We may know a fair bit about what China can or has done. And nobody wants to talk specifically about what those things are.
- obmelvin 6y agoI remember a couple years ago hearing a talk about using smartphone camera sensors to detect radiation levels - the idea of using such devices is out in the open now
- xxpor 6y agoUsing traditional film is more or less how radioactivity was discovered in the first place: https://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/4.html https://www2.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/chapters/03/4.html Using modern sensors seems like the logical extension of that.
- kodablah 6y agoCan I see one and inspect the hardware? Remember, we discounted Bloomberg's story concerning SuperMicro implants (likely justifiably) for not having hardware and not naming sources. Does this story about the ability for hardware to be altered from a large manufacturer at the behest of the government with so few knowing about it for so long (even within the company), unreported by anyone else, and not going on record with their names about it until way later give any credence to other similar stories that may not yet be at the reveal names and insider info stage? (to clarify, I believe this story and am skeptical of the Bloomberg one, I just find the 15-year secrecy and limited scope notable)
- nojito 6y agoThere's a reason why Bloomberg didn't retract the story. The idea that senior execs know everything that happens at their respective company is borderline nonsense.
- lawnchair_larry 6y ago> There's a reason why Bloomberg didn't retract the story. Not a valid one. The story was false.
- toast0 6y agoI honestly suspect the reporter was at least very confused, but the firmware for the BMC on SuperMicro boards has had some serious security vulnerabilities from time to time --- I wonder if that's the base of story, and it got confused from there.
- jakobmartz3 6y agoWow, interesting read. Wonder what else they do to normal apple products.
- philwelch 6y agoThis reminds me of the Xerox machine in the Soviet Embassy. Xerox embedded a small camera that recorded every photocopied document on microfilm and recovered the microfilm for the CIA whenever they serviced the machine.
- ChuckNorris89 6y agoSo the soviets didn't bother to check the american made Xerox machine for bugs and just let it rip at their confidential documents? I find that hard to belive. Got a source?
- philwelch 6y agoThis is when Xerox machines were first invented; otherwise they would probably have used a Soviet-produced photocopier instead of using a magical American machine in the first place. There are lots of sources but this is one: https://electricalstrategies.com/about/in-the-news/spies-in-the-xerox-machine/ https://electricalstrategies.com/about/in-the-news/spies-in-...
- golergka 6y ago> Soviet-produced photocopier I don't think that such a thing ever existed.
- failuser 6y agoIt did exist, but KGB realized it was thread early on and prevented mass adoption. The access to ability to photocopy has highly restricted, but it did not prevent people from copying forbidden literature. https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Vladimir_Fridkin https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Vladimir_Fridkin
- golergka 6y ago> KGB realized it was thread early on and prevented mass adoption I don't think they had to actually "prevent" it — just as jeans, baby diapers, disposable paper towels and stockings, USSR was just very bad at consumer items. It didn't even had real mass adoption of toilet paper.
- williesleg 6y agoOh, that's amazing! China embeds it all in the chips, I guess the US isn't that smart.
- hazeii 6y agoApple are generally considered to be best when it comes to protecting their user's privacy (edit: issues like this aside). It does make me wonder what the others are doing.
- dastx 6y agoNo, Apple wants you to think they're the best when it comes to protecting user's privacy. Don't forget Apple was one of the many companies part of the PRISM program.
- nojito 6y agoOnly because refusing would have bankrupted them. The idea that Apple doesn't protect user privacy is absolute nonsense.
- ogurechny 6y agoOnce upon a time, people believed that kings were appointed by God to care about common folk, guide and discipline them. It's fun to see a modern commoner showing the same dedication to a corporate business.
- lawnchair_larry 6y agoIf by “part of the PRISM program” you mean “responds to court orders and routinely fights orders that are too broad”, then I suppose that is accurate.
- azinman2 6y agoTalk to any engineer at Apple and they’ll tell you that privacy is involved with every feature development and pervades every discussion internally. It’s not a facade.
- xvector 6y agoFriend used to be a security engineer at Apple and was thoroughly disillusioned with their privacy stance after working there for three years.
- tossAfterUsing 6y agorelated? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet#History
- easton 6y agoMaybe, but that wouldn’t necessarily require modifications to the iPod. iPods could be used as USB external drives and you could just load it on there without having to mess with the OS at all.
- viro 6y agoyup they helped a spy not get killed ....
- viro 6y agolegit why did this get downvoted?...
- riffic 6y agoApple will neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a project.
- draw_down 6y agoPerhaps but that doesn’t really matter, Tony Fadell confirmed it. Enthusiastically, even.
- danans 6y agoNobody has asked it yet,so I will. What is the use case for this device. I know, the article says "measure radiation without being noticed", but what are the actual situations where you would want to do that? Presumably sending spies to gather data on nuclear weapons production sites? Wouldn't those sites have crazy operational security and would confiscate things like iPods before entering anyways? Or is the idea to detect facilities that are building dirty-bombs in dense urban areas (a-la some scene set in middle-eastern country X from the show 'Homeland')
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago>measure radiation without being noticed", but what are the actual situations where you would want to do that? Most likely it was for use against Iran or some allies who we didn't want to overtly say we don't trust.
- stonogo 6y agoAs someone who has done some contracting work in this space, I'd say one of the use cases for this is shipping inspections at ports. Not everything the government considers sensitive is the Jason Bourne black-ops stuff most of the comments here are fantasizing about. Here's a couple overviews: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-and-nuclear-smuggling-detection-and-deterrence https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-and-nuclear-smuggling-detec... https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radiation-and-shipping-port-security https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radiation-and-shipping-port-secu...
- danans 6y agoBut then why embed it in an iPod?
- stonogo 6y agoBecause it's likely the device your longshoreman foremen and customs inspectors are already using around this inventory. If you can embed radiation detectors in them and send sensor data off to central servers at the same time, why wouldn't you?
- foobarbecue 6y agoI'm amused that the Apple's IPod software team developed on windows machines. (from https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ipod/ https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ip... )
- AdmiralAsshat 6y agoI'll bet that many of the people who worked on iTunes probably developed on Windows as well. I'm sure Apple would prefer that every iPod user own a Mac, but at the time it launched, the market would've been like 90% PC, so surely there would've been an incentive to ensure compatibility with your dominant user-base.
- dplavery92 6y agoIn Shayer's article (not the top-level BBC article) he makes the comment that they developed the iPod OS on Windows machines since the compiler and tools for building on ARM were not yet available on Mac. You make a good point about developing software for other platforms, though, and I'm sure there are also quite a few Mac and Linux boxes in software divisions at Microsoft for the same reason.
- sleepychu 6y ago> I'm sure Apple would prefer that every iPod user own a Mac Not if it's an old mac ;-) I was an early iPod touch adopter (bought with X-mas money IIRC). Plugged it into my iBook G4 and was informed the version of iTunes was both too old and the latest this laptop was going to get. Plugged it into a Windows 2000/XP machine (which I think was already old for the time) and it managed to get the latest version of iTunes. Now of course, I'm aware of the context of the PPC to Intel shift and that there was a non-zero cost to maintaining both streams of iTunes build but it really put me off Apple at the time.
- suyash 6y agosame can be said for Microsoft making MS Office apps for Mac and iOS, it's not funny anymore as it used to be.
- marvindanig 6y agoAhem, ahem. Would it be surprising if such a "crazy cool technology" is embedded into the AirPods of late and being used by your political opponents?
- babypuncher 6y agoHow do you suppose AirPods with a built-in hidden Geiger counter could be used to attack political opponents?
- marvindanig 6y agoAh, reaction is often telling. Thank you downvoters. ;-)
- nikk1 6y agoI doubt this project was "Top Secret" ... If it was, I doubt we would be reading about it here...
- dplavery92 6y agoIf Shayer's (in turn, Apple's) participation were classified, he would be looking at a serious criminal offense for writing the article. The hardware and functionality of the devices that the Bechtel engineers were integrating, about which Shayer only speculates, could well have been so classified, though.
- newen 6y agoTop secret classifications usually have time limits. As in secrets in the project loses its classification status after a few years.
- suyash 6y agoWhy would you go through the pain of all this, just make the copy of the case and mimic the software UI - underneath it can be all of your custom hardware and software. No need to bother Apple. This is how most of the fake iPhones are made in China.
- azinman2 6y agoIt was cutting edge at the time. There were no clones.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 6y agoWould you want to be accused of being a spy? On second thought I wonder if it was a geiger counter that can secretly phone home and report data when connected to the Internet when the user adds music. Get into the Apple supply chain and make sure they end up in Apple stores near your "targets". That's exactly why it would need to be undetectable.
- bonestamp2 6y ago> Why would you go through the pain of all this So that it's extremely difficult to detect that it's not a regular ipod, even if disassembled.
- pritovido 6y agoBecause it takes tens of millions of dollars to replicate the functionality of the Ipod-Iphone. Chinese do it in a completely different way, using prefabricated components. Secret services can not use prefabricated Chinese components because those need to be audited and that cost millions too. So using already made American companies components' is the obvious solution. It just cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- exikyut 6y ago> already made American companies components' made in china FTFY
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aaron695 6y agoThis will be Stuxnet. This has nothing to do with a geiger counter or measuring radioactivity. Watch the doco Zero Days. It's an ok round up of Stuxnet.
- r12477 6y agoStuxnet has been well broken down and described. It had nothing to do with iPods with surreptitious recording capabilities.
- aaron695 6y agoSince you are an expert, can you explain the zero day that would be needed to get Stuxnet onto the SCADA/first computer? Obviously the final product might not have used this iPod. It was a huge operation on many levels with failed projects. This iPod also obviously might not have been for recording, since that's a level one misdirect, oh it's secret spy recording device, person who's watched to much James Bond. But how did they do the 'usb' zero day since you know it isn't a iPod?
- joe_away629 6y agoThe DEA -> Geiger counter connection is so obvious that I feel like it must be misdirection, a red herring.
- mleonhard 6y agoI expect that the real purpose of the project was simply to let those two engineers learn iPod development. Afterward, they had the expertise and software tools to make an iPod do many things, not just collect data.
- basicplus2 6y agoI guess everyone on HN is checking their discs for hidden partions now...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- antihero 6y ago> We on the iPod engineering team were impressed. But Apple corporate didn’t like it. Starting with the iPod nano, the operating system was signed with a digital signature to block the Linux hackers (and others). The boot ROM checked the digital signature before loading the operating system; if it didn’t match, it wouldn’t boot. Why oh WHY are companies like this? If we want to put our own OS on a cool bit of hardware, what is the problem with that? Absolutely shocking mentality that needs to die (but looks like frankly it is getting worse).
- ben_w 6y agoGiving you the freedom to run arbitrarily code on your device means giving your government the freedom to run arbitrarily code on your device, and it means giving every hacker on the planet who finds a remote exploit the freedom to run arbitrarily code on your device. I don’t mind that freedom being limited to desktops and specialist hardware like Raspberry Pi and Arduino, and taken away from everything else like a phone or an MP3 player or a printer. What’s the saying? The ‘S’ in IoT stands for ‘security’?
- anfilt 6y agoYou know it's possible to have a signed boot loader without locking the owner out of the device. Moreover, I do mind such freedom being taken away.
- anfilt 6y agoI know! This was the main thing I noticed about this article. I was like really -.-
- t0mas88 6y agoMany years ago I worked on open source MP3 player firmware at Rockbox.org, we created a feature to develop skins for the UI so you could make it look exactly like the original firmware if you wanted. Why wouldn't they use that, from the secrecy of their own office, instead of asking Apple (or any other manufacturer) to participate and risk the kind of "leak" that we see now?