Apple Says All iPhones, Macs Exposed To “Meltdown”, “Spectre” Flaws

Apple Says All iPhones, Macs Exposed To “Meltdown”, “Spectre” Flaws:

All Mac iOS devices and systems are exposed and vulnerable to the recently discovered chip bugs known as Spectre and Meltdown, Apple confirmed on Thursday. The flaws, which as we discussed before, allow hackers unauthorized access to a computer’s memory and sensitive data, were discovered by security researchers at Google Project Zero on Wednesday. Security vulnerabilities called Meltdown and Spectre affect almost all modern CPUs, including those produced by Intel, AMD and ARM Holdings.

All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected,” Apple acknowledged in a statement on Thursday, adding that no cases had yet been reported of customers being affected by the security flaws.

Read moreApple Says All iPhones, Macs Exposed To “Meltdown”, “Spectre” Flaws

Apple faces lawsuits over its intentional slowing of older iPhones

Apple faces lawsuits over its intentional slowing of older iPhones:

Plaintiffs from two separate class-action lawsuits claim Apple did not have user consent to slow iPhone performance and that it was forcing new purchases

Apple is facing lawsuits over the revelations that it intentionally slows down older iPhones without user consent.

Apple has admitted to slowing down the iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and SE when their batteries are either old, cold or have a low charge to prevent abrupt shutdowns.

Two separate class-action lawsuits were filed Thursday, brought by plaintiffs in California and Illinois, arguing that Apple did not have consent to slow down their iPhones.

Two people from Chicago, along with residents of Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina, claim that Apple’s iOS updates were “fraudulently forcing iPhone owners to purchase the latest model offered by Apple.”

Read moreApple faces lawsuits over its intentional slowing of older iPhones

Hackers Crack Apple’s Face ID With $150 Mask

Hackers Crack Apple’s Face ID With $150 Mask:

On Friday, Vietnamese security firm Bkav released a blog post and video purportedly showing them cracking Face ID with a composite mask of 3-D-printed plastic, silicone, makeup, and simple paper cutouts, which they assembled to successfully trick the iPhone X into unlocking…

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“This Is Embarrassing”: 2 People Show Up For iPhone 8 Launch in China

–  “This Is Embarrassing”: 2 People Show Up For iPhone 8 Launch in China:

Confirming reports that reception for Apple’s iPhone 8 may be “underwhelming” to put it lightly, is the following report from Hangzhou, China which reveals that all of 2 people were waiting in line for the latest gizmo from Tim Cook.

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Apple’s New “FaceID” Could Be A Powerful Mass Spying Tool

Apple’s New “FaceID” Could Be A Powerful Mass Spying Tool:

On Tuesday, Apple revealed their newest phone. The new line was anticipated by Apple users and is another cult favorite.  But many are rightly skeptical of the “FaceID” feature.

FaceID, is a tool that would use facial recognition to identify individuals and unlock their phones for use. Unsurprisingly, this has generated some major anxiety about mass spying and privacy concerns. Retailers already have a desire for facial recognition technology. They want to monitor consumers, and without legally binding terms and Apple could use FaceID to track consumer patterns at its stores or develop and sell data to others.

That seems minor on the surface, but the ramifications could be enormous. 

It’s also highly possible that police would be able to more easily unlock phones without consent by simply holding an individual’s phone up to his or her face, violating the rights of the person to privacy.

Read moreApple’s New “FaceID” Could Be A Powerful Mass Spying Tool

Vault 7 bombshell just vindicated every conspiracy theorist: The CIA can spy on anyone through TVs, iPhones, smart phones and Windows PCs

Vault 7 bombshell just vindicated every conspiracy theorist: The CIA can spy on anyone through TVs, iPhones, smart phones and Windows PCs

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iPhone bug allows hackers to steal passwords with just a text message – update now to protect yourself

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iPhone bug allows hackers to steal passwords with just a text message – update now to protect yourself:

Apple has fixed a major security hole that potentially allowed hackers to gain access to a user’s iPhone, potentially allowing them to steal sensitive data such as passwords.

The flaw allowed hackers to break into an iPhone simply by sending them a text message with a specially-modified image file.

Read moreiPhone bug allows hackers to steal passwords with just a text message – update now to protect yourself

Apple 2016 iPhone Sales To Fall For The First Time Due To “Lukewarm Demand”, Shipments To Drop 8.6%

iPhone-cracked

Apple 2016 iPhone Sales To Fall For The First Time Due To “Lukewarm Demand”, Shipments To Drop 8.6%:

Moments ago Japan’s Nikkei warned that Apple will see the first annual decline in iPhone shipments this year since the smartphone’s debut in 2007 “due to lukewarm demand for a new model, people familiar with the matter told Nikkei Asian Review.” As Nikkei reports citing a person at a major supplier, overall iPhone shipments will total 210 to 220 million this year, falling as much as 8.6% from 2015.

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AAPL Tumbles After Report Of 70-80% Plunge In iPhone Chip Shipments

AAPL Tumbles After Report Of 70-80% Plunge In iPhone Chip Shipments:

Apple share are tumbling (as are the entire complex of suppliers) following a report from Nikkei that Taiwan Seminconductor’s shipments of iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 chips for June-Dec. period will likely shrink 70%-80% vs year earlier. As one anayst noted, a decline of more than 20-30% is not in consensus estimates. As Bloomberg reports, of particular interest is that this cut to orders is about upcoming iPhone 7, not about the well-publicized iPhone 6 slowdown.

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iPhone security flaw lets anyone access your contacts and photos without a passcode

iPhone security flaw lets anyone access your contacts and photos without a passcode:

Luckily, the flaw only affects devices that have given Siri relevant permissions to access these applications. At the time of writing there does not appear to be an official fix for the bug however concerned users can fully disable Siri on the lock screen to ensure they don’t fall victim.

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FBI’s Own Actions Likely Made Farook’s iPhone Data Inaccessible

FBI’s Own Actions Likely Made Farook’s iPhone Data Inaccessible:

On Friday, we noted that one of the reasons that the FBI was unable to get access to the data on the remaining iPhone from Syed Farook was because after the shooting and after the phone was in the hands of the government, Farook’s employer, the San Bernardino Health Department, initiated a password change on his iCloud account. That apparently messed stuff up, because without that, it would have been possible to force the phone to backup data to the associated iCloud account, where it would have been available to the FBI. But, after we published that article, a rather salient point came out: the Health Department only did this because the FBI asked it to do so.

From a San Bernardino County Twitter account:

Read moreFBI’s Own Actions Likely Made Farook’s iPhone Data Inaccessible

Is It All Just A Publicity Stunt: Apple Unlocked iPhones For The Feds 70 Times Before

Big Brother iphone zombiesAAPL Zombies

Is It All Just A Publicity Stunt: Apple Unlocked iPhones For The Feds 70 Times Before:

Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case may not be quite the principled defense that Cook claims it is… it may have as much to do with public relations as it does with warding off what Cook called “an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.””

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The Unhackable iPhone Has Been Compromised: “Intelligence Agencies Can Intercept Calls, Messages, & Access Data”

Apple-hacked

The Unhackable iPhone Has Been Compromised: “Intelligence Agencies Can Intercept Calls, Messages, & Access Data”:

Iphone maker Apple, Inc. claimed last month that their latest iteration of the wildly popular handheld device was unhackable. According to HackRead, the company is so convinced of its security successes that they issued a statement saying that data stored on a phone secured with a front screen passcode was impossible to access – even by highly talented intelligence agencies:

The CIA and the FBI are always looking for backdoors in Apple devices, in fact, the agency spent years trying to hack iPhone and iPads according to documents released by NSA’s Edward Snowden.

Now, with the new upgraded operating systems, Apple has termed it “impossible” to access any data from Apple devices. Though, the company can still access data from older phones.

Read moreThe Unhackable iPhone Has Been Compromised: “Intelligence Agencies Can Intercept Calls, Messages, & Access Data”

AND NOW … China’s Latest Craze: Sperm For iPhone

iphone sperm china

China’s Latest Craze: Sperm For iPhone:

The biggest scare haunting Apple stock in recent months has been whether the slow at first, then quite sudden collapse in both the Chinese economy, not to mention its burst stock market bubble (which in Chinese propaganda retrospect, is now a great thing), will put the breaks on Chinese purchases of Apple’s most important and profitable product – the iPhone. Indeed according to a just released UBS report, while it takes the average New York worker about 24 hours to afford a 16GB iPhone 6, this number rises to 218 hours in Beijing. And the great China’s economic slowdown the higher the number will go, and the lower Apple’s revenues in the coming quarters.

However, for China’s middle class, whose dreams of market bubble riches just went up in a margin call, there is still hope to pretend to be richer than one’s neighbor courtesy of a faux rose gold cell phone. The answer: a tablespoon of sperm.

As Xinhua reports, “technophiles may not have to reach far to find the cash for Apple’s latest model. According to an advertisement with the Shanghai Sperm Bank – all you have to do is donating.”

“No need to sell a kidney…Shanghai sperm bank can make your iPhone 6s dream come true,” says the ad which has gone viral on China’s most popular social networking app WeChat this week.

From Xinhua:

Capitalizing on the country’s lust for new technology, the sperm bank hopes to fix a shortage in donors ahead of the release of the iPhone 6s next week. Those who qualify to donate can receive up to 6,000 yuan for 17 ml of semen. The latest Apple model is expected to cost around 5,288 yuan.

The morbid jokes just write themselves:

“Why sell your kidney when you can donate sperm? It’s a great deed that can bring happiness to a whole family,” said microblog Weibo user “Wojiushiwutong”.

As a reminder, while “selling kidneys” is usually just a phrase, in China it became all too real in 2011 when a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy and iPhone and an iPad. “To sell a kidney has become a well-known metaphor for the fever pitch surrounding Apple products.”

A sperm bank in central China’s Hubei Province posted a similar ad highlighting a picture of the new rose gold iPhone 6s, a color created mainly to attract Chinese consumers. The Shanghai ad is bluntly titled “New Solution to Get iPhone 6s”, evoking some criticism that the sperm bank is being insensitive.

“I don’t like the idea of making money out of sperm donation to buy new iPhones. Sperm donation is a very serious cause for public good,” one Weibo user said. But a spokesperson with the Shanghai sperm bank told Xinhua the campaign has worked well so far, raising awareness and attracting potential donors.

The reason why 17 ml of sperm are so valuable in China is because not only are there thousands of infertile couples in China, but all sperm banks across the country face donation shortages because many young men are unaware or too embarrassed to donate, forcing the banks to turn to social media.

Even if they do find a sufficient pool of potential donors, certain criteria must be met to be eligible. Donors must be between 22 to 45 years old, hold a college degree and have high-quality semen that can survive the rigors of freezing and thawing.Which still keeps the pool of eligible candidates in the tens if not hundreds of millions.

It was not exactly clear how potential female consumers of iPhone are supposed to capitalize on this latest Chinese craze, and while there are countless, and very humorous, places one can take this latest manifestation of capitalism perhaps gone too far, one potential Chinese “channel check” may have appeared: masturbation as a leading indicator of iPhone sales. Because just when sales were starting to turn flaccid, here comes China’s sperm-for-iPhones Hail Mary, promising at least several more quarters of firm stock reactions to EPS beats.

The CIA Campaign To Steal Apple’s Secrets

ispy-cia-apple

The CIA Campaign to Steal Apple’s Secrets (The Intercept, March 10, 2015):

RESEARCHERS WORKING with the Central Intelligence Agency have conducted a multi-year, sustained effort to break the security of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Intercept.

The security researchers presented their latest tactics and achievements at a secret annual gathering, called the “Jamboree,” where attendees discussed strategies for exploiting security flaws in household and commercial electronics. The conferences have spanned nearly a decade, with the first CIA-sponsored meeting taking place a year before the first iPhone was released.

Read moreThe CIA Campaign To Steal Apple’s Secrets

HOUSING RECOVERY: Man Tries To Trade Decrepit Detroit House For New iPhone

Man Tries to Trade Decrepit Detroit House for New iPhone
Man Tries to Trade Decrepit Detroit House for New iPhone (ABC News)

Man Tries to Trade Decrepit Detroit House for New iPhone (ABC News, ‘Good Morning America’, Oct 8, 2014):

One homeowner is resorting to bartering for the latest iPhone as a tactic to sell a beleaguered property in Detroit.

The owner has dropped the asking price on a three-bedroom home in east Detroit from $5,000 to a new iPhone 6 as the owner is desperate to sell ahead of the area’s tax auction season where “thousands” of homes near foreclosure will flood the market, real estate broker Larry Else told ABC News.

“This house is really not worth much at all,” Else said.

Read moreHOUSING RECOVERY: Man Tries To Trade Decrepit Detroit House For New iPhone

Apple Engineered Surveillance Back Door Into 600 Million iPhones

Related info:

China Fears iPhone Is ‘Threat To National Security’


Apple engineered surveillance back door into 600 million iPhones (Natural News, July 22, 2014):

A highly skilled hacker who presented at the recent Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE/X) conference in New York has dropped a massive bomb on the state of smartphone privacy. Jonathan Zdziarski, an active member in the iPhone development community who helped work on many early iOS “jailbreak” iterations, says Apple has deliberately engineered back door surveillance systems into the iPhone, allowing both the company and the government easy access to users’ personal data.

During his presentation, Zdziarski, who goes by the hacker alias “NerveGas,” showed detailed slides explaining how iOS is inherently insecure — on purpose. His investigation into the coding behind iOS revealed that the seemingly user-friendly system, which is used on hundreds of millions of Apple iPhones, contains a number of “undocumented high-value forensic services” and “suspicious design omissions,” both of which make it relatively easy for private data to be extracted from users’ phones.

Read moreApple Engineered Surveillance Back Door Into 600 Million iPhones