Apple announces a new iPhone (and you can’t have it)

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2019 06:55:00 -0700

Apple has announced a new iPhone for 2020, but it will only be made available to a select group of security researchers – along with huge bounties to anyone informing the company of a new OS vulnerability.

Probably the world’s most exclusive iPhone

Ivan Krstić, Apple’s head of security engineering provided big insights into Apple’s platform security during his presentation at Black Hat U.S. 2019.

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Update your iPhone – remote control holes revealed by researchers

Credit to Author: Paul Ducklin| Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2019 14:01:41 +0000

You might not think your phone is as exposed as an internet server – but it’s handling plenty of untrusted data from unknown sources!<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/Ri0849b3RDo” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Many VPN apps on Apple’s App store can’t be trusted, researcher warns

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2019 05:50:00 -0700

I’m told Apple is at last looking into the privacy and security of free VPN apps made available across its platforms, following a report from researcher, Simon Migliano.

Who owns your VPN service?

The researcher has flagged up several concerns that really should be recognized by anyone choosing a VPN service from both the Apple and Google App Stores:

  • Ownership: Migliano claims that almost 60 percent of the most popular VPN apps are actually owned (sometimes opaquely) by Chinese companies.
  • Privacy: The researcher also found that as many as 77% of these VPN apps may have what he calls “serious privacy flaws”,including no privacy policy at all, generic policies with no mention of VPN or no detailed logging policy.
  • Data protection: Migliano claims Apple is not enforcing its third-party data-sharing ban against VPN apps, with 80 percent of the top free VPN apps “in breach of the rules”, he said. Many are sharing data with third parties, he claims.

That last allegation is particularly concerning.

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Google and Apple suspend contractor access to voice recordings

Credit to Author: John E Dunn| Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2019 14:20:21 +0000

Apple and Google have announced that they will limit the way audio recorded by their voice assistants, Siri and Google Assistant, are accessed internally by contractors.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/6WDIUcUa8Ns” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Apple suspends Siri snooping (and promises more control for the rest of us)

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2019 04:27:00 -0700

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Five Eyes nations demand access to encrypted messaging

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2019 10:39:54 +0000

The alliance wants tech companies to build backdoor access to users’ encrypted data, by force if necessary.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/OwcXC3l1bLY” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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iMessage bug could have allowed attackers to read data from any iPhone

Credit to Author: Danny Bradbury| Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2019 13:44:07 +0000

Google’s Project Zero has unveiled details of a bug in Apple’s iMessage that lets attackers read data from an iPhone without any user interaction.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/lRgoEr1lXx4″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Listening in: Humans hear the private info Siri accidentally records

Credit to Author: Lisa Vaas| Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:28:24 +0000

Apple Watch and HomePod have the highest rate of inadvertent recordings, a whistleblower says.<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nakedsecurity/~4/NBH7Od8K-QM” height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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Apple’s shock Siri surveillance demands a swift response

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2019 07:51:00 -0700

News that Siri records snippets of our conversations with the voice assistant isn’t new, but claims that those short recordings are listened to by human agents is– particularly in light of the company’s big push on privacy.

These are bad optics

I’m a passionate believer in the importance of privacy.

It isn’t only important in terms of preserving hard-won liberties and protecting public discourse, it’s also of growing importance across every part of human existence, for every school, medical facility or enterprise. History shows that the absence of privacy has a corrosive effect on society, turning family members against each other and dampening innovation.

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