Re:NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on pre...
by judge2020 on Sunday October 24, 2021 @07:57PM
(#28983089)
Android is an even larger attack surface when political people don't take any of the precautions you mention, which they most likely won't. The President of the United States does indeed have a specialized phone that is modified by WH staff to either be only for phone calls or only for twitter/news (which means 2 phones)[0], but they're still iPhones. As long as there's not some 0-authorization 0-click vulnerability in the things used (as in, reportedly, neither iphone did texts), it'll be secure enough, but that's still limiting its usage and isn't want any politician is going to do. Just stick to a desk phone for secure comms.
0: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/trump-phone-securi...
Re:NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on pre...
by dx034 on Monday October 25, 2021 @02:03AM
(#28984876)
Could anyone deactivate texts on an iphone or did they get a special iOS version from Apple?
Re:NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on pre...
by vanchor3 on Monday October 25, 2021 @07:08AM
(#28986428)
Texts or iMessage?
Texts shouldn't be difficult, just disable on the carrier end. MDM might be able to restrict it further just in case. With iMessage you can just not sign in to an Apple ID. Or use MDM.
Iphones are a standardized attack surface. Apple prefers vulnerabilities not to be found than to be discovered and patched, leading to NSO holding on their discovered vulnerabilities for longer.
An android device with no modem (baseband) is definitely more secure. Throw in a hardware switch for camera, mics, and wifi, which iphones will never have.