UK.gov BANS iPads from Cabinet over foreign eavesdropper fears iPads and mobile devices have been banned from Cabinet meetings over concerns the mobile devices could be compromised by foreign governments trying to spy on top level government meetings, the Mail on Sunday reports. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, used iPads in a presentation last week about how the Government …
What would he have to say that anyone would want to listen to?
In fact I should imagine that everyone who is anyone in international espionage would rather listen to a cat crapping rather than Willy.
As for GCHQ modifying his phone...........why bother.........let everyone listen, after they've been bored by his blather as long as the rest of us have been, they'd be candidates for suicide watch.
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I agree, the problem is only so large because so much government dealings are "secret". Given we elected them, realistically the vast majority of what these people say in meetings should be recorded and made public. Obviously there are exceptions for genuine security reasons, but everything else should be completely on the record and publicly available.
Ban all electronic devices from top level meetings. Spend millions a year vetting potential staff, put physical security in place on the tops of buildings and spend more millions securing the room against people using any sort of bugging device, that'll make it super secure...right up until the point one of the idiots we voted into office leaves the minutes of the meeting on a train or in a taxi.
Can you imagine how boring it could be listening to the likes of May, Hague or Cameron.
Actually this whole issue of interception and that mention of May hss just reminded me of the story regarding Theresa May (Home Secretary) and Teresa May (porn star) - they both have London correspondence addresses and keep getting each other's letters.
I've often wondered which I feel more sorry for - the Home Secretary inadvertently getting lusty sex fantasies or the porn star getting letters starting "My dustbin hasn't been emptied for five weeks..."
"I've often wondered which I feel more sorry for - the Home Secretary inadvertently getting lusty sex fantasies or the porn star getting letters starting "My dustbin hasn't been emptied for five weeks...""
Is that true? That's quite funny. I think I might write her a letter saying how I'd like to do <many rude things to her> and then add a paragraph at the end asking why my bin hasn't been emptied.
On second thoughts, a quick visit to google images changed my mind. About which one to send the letter to at least!
SD
The other side of Theresa May http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/646474.stm
> I'm sure the Chinese have had a good go
If I was running the country that made the chips, firmware and phones themselves I'd have many, many opportunities to add surveillance abilities right down to the level of the silicon. So if you really want a secure phone, there seems to be few options other than building your own - from scratch.
Shame we blew it.
That installed his own Wi-Fi network in his Westminster office?
(from theguardian.com)
"Maude had the wireless network set up “so he can use his phone and iPad in his office” (because the current one is "rubbish")
Security researcher Rik Ferguson describes Maude's “willingness to endanger the security of the parliamentary network, systems and data” as “incredible”.
“If he really has ‘installed his own Wi-Fi’ … then that network segment will not be configured, managed or audited by security experts in the House of Commons, rendering them blind to the the risks it represents,” Ferguson adds. “Actions like those of Mr Maude demonstrate, yet again, that it’s not only the bad guys you have to worry about.”
Four of the six levels of security classification are to be depreciated in an effort to allow Cabinet Office staff to use more off-the-shelf hardware. "
The security of the country vs wanting to use an iPad
It sounds like the plot to a new episiode of Yes Minister
Sensationalism, Click Bait?
Almost as bad as the Daily Star !
So are you new round here or just forget which site your on?
Despite some genuinely great articles El Reg headlines are always click bait of the worst order. Usually worth a read anyway just not necessarily for the reason you would assume from the headline.
Forget malware, what about these things being tied to the Apple HQ? All the settings and other stuff that Apple ''helpfully backs up'' and so sucks down to its data centers. The NSA will have a copy of that! iWhatevers belonging to MPs, civil servants and industry top brass are going to be of special interest.
I have been yelling at my (Tory) MP about this since he got elected, the message has still only got partly there :-(
All the settings and other stuff that Apple ''helpfully backs up'' and so sucks down to its data centers
If you let it. Any idiot who uses iCloud or especially this new password manager thing should be banned from being near anything confidential.
As for locking electronic gadgets away for sensitive meetings, that is Apple specific nor new - that rule has existed for decades in places like MI5 and GCHQ, and for good reasons. Personally, I think this is the one good thing that has come out of all those leaks: FINALLY people begin to wake up.
>>Security services fear that China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan might have developed the ability to turn mobiles into microphones using malware, the MoS reports."
Note which country is absent.<<
I guess you mean the US? The US is not absent from that list. The list is of countries that “might” have developed the ability, I think we can all assume the US HAVE developed the ability.
In fact, I think this is the way most of these reports will continue, assuming whatever it is the US can and has done it, and just listing the countries they are unsure about.
Are the MPs still publishing their official and formal signatures online?
Ah! Thought so. Shame innit?
When one gets soft-soaped cuckolded by one's civil service one's paranoia tends to diminish if not disintegrate altogether.
And what's this delusion about governments?
Do ministers mean the UK civil service?
Don't they know that any1 might wish to hack upon them?
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