Apple Says iMessage Interception Would Require Re-Engineering Systems, Has No Interest in Doing So

[ogee]

Nothing in this world is really secure or private. If the secret services want your info, they will get it.

Many many years ago I failed a positive vetting in the UK airforce, a few years later I found by chance they were still monitoring me when I found a strange charge on my bank account. Asking my bank what it was, I was told it was for a request for my full bank account details and statements for the vetting services. At least the bank refunded me the charge, but its was a bit of a shock at the time.

 

[firedept]

There is always a simple retort to a statement like this from the "Nothing to hide" brigade.

Do you have curtains in your home?

No. And I clean house in the nude. I have nothing to hide and am not worthy of being monitored.

 

[Tankmaze]

meh, don't really care if apple can read the imessage or not.

only apple haters nitpicking this kind of stuff.

 

[macduke]

As a citizen of the United States, one of my fears (aside from my own personal privacy concerns) is that this NSA spying will end up causing users from other countries to take their business elsewhere. In the long term, our economy could be hurt as innovation is stifled in the face of these broad security measures scaring away potential users and their cash flow into our country. Not that some other governments wouldn't do some of the same things—but what the U.S. Government is doing is still troubling as we used to be looked up to as some sort of beacon of freedom. I'd rather take the occasional smaller-scale terrorist attack (give me liberty or give me death mindset) than wreck our economy and complete way of life as private citizens. In doing so we would be fulfilling Osama Bin Laden's wildest dreams.

Sorry to go off about the NSA. Several other stories I've read around the web about this same topic of hacking iMessages mentioned the NSA and how Apple could be coerced into providing them iMessages by using these stored keys. Even if they were, Apple would be required by law to lie about it to the public or face going out of business. The same thing happened with Lavabit and others. As much as I love Apple, I can't see them having the guts to completely shut down operations like Ladar Levison did. But neither will Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Exercise caution when dealing with American tech companies.

 

[Aye]

ANY data which is transmitted across the internet may be intercepted by someone. Nothing is safe - you MUST trust companies/people.

Why this Apple-centric bashing?

Facebook employes can read your posts, Citibank employees can see your bank transactions, Google employees can know what all your searches are.

This is no less secure than anything else done on the internet.

Totally agreed ... The same people who are browsing the internet publicly & privately all the time, have Facebook / Twitter / Google Linkedin / MonsterJobs/ CareerBuilder etc / Email / PMessages accounts, smartphones, credit / debit cards, public forums, grocery rewards, magazine etc subscriptions, health cards, government and other association IDs, buying online ... Are they that naive/hypocrital/delusional or just always enjoy being in a group of mobs - it is very fashionable to bash anyone at number one?

 

[Daveoc64]

Who's bashing Apple? The article and the subsequent comments simply point out that although Apple has stated that iMessage is encrypted (and that Apple can't read the messages) but it would be possible for Apple to read them even if a little engineering effort were needed. I don't believe that any of the other companies that you quote are making claims that they can't read personal data.

I think you've got it 100% right.

Apple previously claimed that it wasn't possible for them to access messages - how or why they would want to is not at all important.

The reality is that they can but experts knew that all along - the iMessage service couldn't work otherwise.

 

[Colino]

I have complete, blind faith in Apple.

 

[Alphabetize]

For some reason, I just don't believe Apple's statement. I'd like to be assured that my electronic communications are completely secure and private, but there's no easy way for me to do that. But I will keep using iMessage simply because it's the easiest way for me to message people.

 

[Aye]

Who are living in a cave and trust no one? But apparently has alerts for any type of paranoia internet discussions?

 

[thebeans]

Exactly!!

ANY data which is transmitted across the internet may be intercepted by someone. Nothing is safe - you MUST trust companies/people.

Why this Apple-centric bashing?

Facebook employes can read your posts, Citibank employees can see your bank transactions, Google employees can know what all your searches are.

This is no less secure than anything else done on the internet.

+1,000

N O T H I N G you do on the Internet is free from the possibility of being tracked, copied, intercepted, read, or whatever. Your ISP knows everything you search for and every site you visit. Email can be hacked. That is simply the way it is. If you don't like it, then you just need to avoid the Internet.

Now that being said, these things don't actually happen all that often. Yes, there is the possibility of privacy violations but in practice the chances of any honest, non-criminal, non-terrorist ever having anything they do actually looked at are miniscule at most. Yea, the NSA or whoever can look at things but do you think they will actually ever literally read YOUR email? You are simply not that interesting. This is not directed at any particular person, just a general statement.

 

[AlphaHumanus]

that is the problem. people like you who say that "i don't care if they know..." or "let them, i've got nothing to hide" are throwing everybody's privacy away

Not at all. you shouldn't expect someone else to fight your fight. Some of us understand the world we live in, and where privacy actually is. If you don't like the possibility of being "spied" on, then you are probably going to need to re-locate, as well as ditch all electronic communication. I'll raise up arms when I feel it's actually an invasion of my privacy. Get educated.

It's not about throwing privacy away, it's about understanding the bed your making.

Turn iMessage off then. you still got your carrier.

 

[matrix07]

At least it's not Google!

Well, you got this one sentence right.

 

[white4s]

**** the nsa and **** the government

this countries going down the drain because of those 2

 

[LV426]

No. And I clean house in the nude. I have nothing to hide and am not worthy of being monitored.

If you clean your house in the nude with no curtains, you probably are being monitored. You know, just to make sure you're not stockpiling ammunition in the woods with your Anarchist friends, or something like that!

 

[matrix07]

Google employees can know what all your searches are.

Not only search. Everything online. Once you used Chrome, when you start your PC the Chrome applet will be running even though you didn't open Chrome browser yet.

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that is the problem. people like you who say that "i don't care if they know..." or "let them, i've got nothing to hide" are throwing everybody's privacy away

I agree with you whole-heatedly. Let us all begin with the major threat to our online activities nowadays. Throw all Google's products away from our computers and you'll reduce privacy risk greatly.

 

[BornAgainApple]

Not that I have anything to hide, but I feel more secure in knowing my messages are much harder to decrypt than anything Google or MS has to offer.

 

[DOSNET]

Ah, the dreaded message read by some mystery organization! LMAO! Oh how people love drama! My belief is that, if you are doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about.

Nice theory, unfortunately history proves you wrong. If Big Government decides tomorrow that something you did 5 years ago is now illegal, they could use anything they get their hands on to make your life miserable. Just look at what happened in Nazi Germany. One of the few lessons that Germans learned from that time is the value of privacy. Pray we are never forced to learn the same lesson.

 

[Evnor]

Well I guess that´s that then.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Ah, the dreaded message read by some mystery organization! LMAO! Oh how people love drama! My belief is that, if you are doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about.

Hey, can you post a list of text messages that you've sent to your family and friends over the past couple days? The full text messages, preferably.

If you hesitated even the slightest when you read that, you should reconsider your stance.

 

[whooleytoo]

Why this Apple-centric bashing?

Because this is an Apple-centric site, where most of the readers use mostly Apple products and services and so are interested in Apple's privacy and security policies.

 

[slapppy]

All this news and the response from Apple does nothing but ruin the excitement of Apple Haters. One less BS post to use when trolling for Apple news and less click bait hits for Apple Bashing bloggers.

 

[Oletros]

Can you restore iMessages after an Apple id reset request?

 

[NMBob]

“The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so.”

Falls some way short of saying that Apple will never do so.

And what does "re-engineer" mean? Uncomment a couple of lines of code? It's pretty crazy to think that they couldn't decode the messages while they were in the process of building the system.

 

[firedept]

If you clean your house in the nude with no curtains, you probably are being monitored. You know, just to make sure you're not stockpiling ammunition in the woods with your Anarchist friends, or something like that!

Thanks for the chuckle. Made my day.

 

[Maltz]

Ah, the dreaded message read by some mystery organization! LMAO! Oh how people love drama! My belief is that, if you are doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about.

I keep hearing this argument over and over again, and I'm absolutely stunned that anyone in a free society can think this way. Then again, maybe you HAVE to live in a free society to be that naive...

Ok, so yeah, you're not doing anything "wrong"... and who defines what is "wrong"? Maybe that standard is not a big deal where you live. But there's no guarantee that it will be that way forever, and once the infrastructure is in place to monitor everyone and everything (and it already is) if that standard ever changes then you're already screwed. And before you say that will never happen, I should point out that it's happened dozens of times in formerly-free societies who, when hardship strikes, eagerly vote away their freedoms in a misguided attempt to get their country back on track. In the US, the constitution doesn't allow for that, but that document is only worth as much as the people we elect to defend it.

Not to mention that speech is not as protected in the vast majority of the world as it is in the USA. Even in parts of the EU, you can go to jail for expressing certain (admittedly vile) opinions. And in many countries, including the most populous country in the world, simply being of the wrong religion or political mindset can get you executed. But of course, if they have "nothing to hide" then they'll be fine...