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The Israeli military has decided to ban Android phones for senior officers
“Under the expected order, commanders from the rank of lieutenant colonel and above will be permitted to use only iPhones for official communications. The step is aimed at reducing the risk of intrusions on senior officers’ handsets, according to the report.”
So it seems that Israel (one of the leading country in hackers spies for hire) thinks that there’s a lot « Hezbollah honey pot » that target android device
Israeli company Cellebrite sells a device to extract data from locked phones, both Android and iPhones afaik. So indeed I'm guessing their government knows some stuff about the security of both platforms.
Fun fact: comments mentioning Cellebrite get immediately shadow-hidden on Reddit, or at least in some of the main subs.
In 2021, Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the encrypted messaging app Signal, pointed to several vulnerabilities in Cellebrite's UFED and Physical Analyzer software that allowed for arbitrary code execution on Windows computers running the software. One exploit he detailed involved the UFED scanning a specially formatted file, which could then be used to execute arbitrary code on the computer running the UFED. Marlinspike wrote that the code could then "[modify] not just the Cellebrite report being created in that scan, but also "all previous and future generated Cellebrite reports" from all previously scanned devices and all future scanned devices in any arbitrary way."[27] Marlinspike also found that Cellebrite software was bundled with out-of-date FFmpeg DLL files from 2012, which lacked over 100 subsequent security updates. Windows Installer packages, extracted from the Windows installer for iTunes and signed by Apple, were also found, which he said raised legal concerns.[28] Cellebrite responded that the company "is committed to protecting the integrity of our customers' data, and we continually audit and update our software in order to equip our customers with the best digital intelligence solutions available."[29] The report by Signal followed an announcement by Cellebrite in 2020 that it had developed technology to crack encrypted messages in the Signal app, a claim the company later retracted and downplayed.[30][31] The announcement by Marlinspike raised questions about the integrity of data extracted by the software,[32][33] and prompted Cellebrite to patch some of the vulnerabilities found by Signal and to remove full support for analyzing iPhones.[34][35]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellebrite
Sounds like it is just malware to me.
Vulnerable software is different from malware.
Iirc there was also the part of the story where the exploit for Cellebrite's thing was included in Signal, and Marlinspike said that data on any device scanning Signal with Cellebrite software would be poisoned.
They don’t want people installing GrapheneOS on them.
But isn't that stupid tho. Like they should want their military officers to be using the most secure OS.
But then again, its funny to see them make stupid decisions.
That's only true if they trust them. If the goal is to ensure they can keep track of dissidents then no.
I wouldn’t assume any news about technology being used by IDF to be true in the first place. It could just as easily be misinformation.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, among all tech companies, Apple is the closest to the nazi mindset.
Google has decided you cannot turn off Gemini in their newer versions of Android. You cannot install other roms that do either, Google is killing those too. But yea, Apple is the bad guy. Ignore the Google rug pull.
As much as I don't disagree, I think the "Apple is closest to Nazism" comment touches on something different. Other massive American companies have awful practices but they don't care particularly how their way of making money looks. Apple wields a specific aesthetic power that generally dictates a hegemonic uniformity, that strays the line of being to their detriment at times. I don't think any other big tech company would care in the same way if not for their desire to copy Apple.
What roms does Apple let you install on iPhones?
Apple never opened that door. Google did, but they never intended to keep it open. it was there to catch up with apple. they never intended to do any good here. it was there to speed up development and win people over, then after they are already there, google can close the door and screw them all. That's what's happening now. It was a bait and switch.
Yep. The attract phase is completed for Android, now on to the extract phase.
Apple never even tried to allow it, so yeah, Apple IS the bad guy. Google is becomeing it, Apple is the mayor of bad guy town.
lol that last line. XD
It's like no one remembers the 90's and Microsoft.
Also, IBM literally made computers for the Nazis.
To summarize: The bad guys is US
Wasn't it also just reported a few weeks ago that Samsung installs Israeli spyware on android devices sold in MENA?
https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-appcloud-spyware-controversy-3616325/
Doesn't seem like anyone has ignored Google. They doing it is old news.
Bullshit. I have it turned off on my pixel 9pro and Samsung s24 plus
You actually turned off geminis ability to serve YOU. You never turned off Gemini itself. Google won’t allow that. It’s still running in the background send your data to Google and its advertising partners. Google has publicly stated this is the intended design and they will not allow turning that off.
I mean it's not just that. Probably not even mostly that. Security is really not great on Android far beyond the AI. I've been running Android for years and probably won't change until Linux with LUKS is a reasonable alternative, But from a hardware level on through to the software, there are so many holes in the OS and ways to access privileged information. Even the top end of the Samsung line is largely rootable at this point, not without concessions, mind you, but as far as an enemy getting a phone and gaining access, or the company itself getting your data even without AI, I'd probably be concerned enough for ANY military org not to allow them to be used.
Apple has a hell of a lot of issues, might even be overly friendly with Israel, but from a security standpoint, it's probably safer for secrets than android at the moment.
I really just want an encrypted portable linux device with a cellular modem. I don't even care if it can SMS or VOLTE, I just need it to run a secure chat client, support Bluetooth headphones and last all day on a charge.
LINUX PHONE
Apple
The Official Phone Of Genocide
Lets face it, the more you know about ol' tyranty boy StevieJobs the more it makes sense.
frankly this is because israel knows exactly how much spyware they've gotten their partner, Google, to put into android. the iphone is also chock full of spyware, and they do want to spy on their military force to make sure it's as ideologically and racially pure as they need it to be to continue their genocide. further consider that budget iphones don't exist and you realize that their systemic impoverishing of the indigenous Palestinian people means that all of the targets of their genocide are much more likely to be android users than iphone users. given this, israel is in real time creating a new signifier of jewish-israeli identity. soon having an android phone as civilian will be evidence of HAMAS.
and again.
i want to remind everyone that google is a major partner to israel. this is not a case of iphones bad guys, android phones good guys. this is a case of both being components in a system of torture. i can't tell you yet to divest yourself of both to switch to linux phones like postmarketos because even i can't do that without buying a new device, but please watch that space. and until you can, if you're using a google pixel please consider installing grapheneos, and if you're not please consider using a de-googled lineage based rom. israel greatly values the intel they get from their partner google.
IDF rules:
OK things to do:
Not OK things to do:
I thought Apple doesn’t let the bad guys … oh wait, that’s just in Movies and TV shows.
It's also just not true, the villain/killer/etc has iPhones in many shows and movies already, including multiple AppleTV shows.
Guess we now know what the "i" stands for.
If ever anyone still doesn't get how Western countries still support Israel despite the populations of those countries widely hating Israel, this shit is why.
They have blackmail on all our politicians, but moreover they can sell their domestic surveillance spy tools (such as malware) to bad actors (such as the US gov) to spy on their own citizens too.
Israel is the #1 perpetrator and exporter of fascism and police states.
The reason for this is because Pegasus is better used on iPhones than Androids and you can flash GrapheneOS on them while iPhones are locked down.
This can mean anything, it's possible they wanted just 1 platform so that their expertise is focused. And android being a little more open may have been seen (biased) as a disadvantage (i.e. enemies are more prone to find a vulnerability). We can argue with it. It's like the counterpart of people thinking that open source is per default more safe because of being open source... It's a correlation that can't prove anything..
Guess Blackberry security was right all along
I was already thinking of getting a Linux phone next, this is helping to seal the deal. Fuck Apple the genocide enablers.
please do explain how Apple is doing anything here. If Israel wants to provide their military with iPhones they're going to no matter what Apple does.