Posted on 06/10/2014 10:25:59 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Can the NSA really listen to your iPhones microphone even when it is turned OFF? Experts say it is possible - but reveal the trick to beat it
The NSA could technically listen in to the microphone of an iPhone even if it switched off, experts have revealed.
The claim was first made by Edward Snowden during an interview with Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News.
Today, experts confirmed the technique was technically possibly - and revealed a way to sidestep it.
The claim the NSA could technically listen in to the microphone of an iPhone even if it switched off was first made by Edward Snowden during an interview with Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News.
The claim the NSA could technically listen in to the microphone of an iPhone even if it switched off was first made by Edward Snowden during an interview with Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News.
Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News, holding his iPhone aloft during last Wednesdays interview, asked, What can the NSA do with this device if they want to get into my life? Can anyone turn it on remotely if its off? Can they turn on apps?
'They can absolutely turn them on with the power turned off to the device,' Snowden replied.
Security researchers claim the technique is possible, and that software could make the phone look like its shutting down but actually entering a low-power mode that leaves key communication chips on. . .
This 'playing dead' state would allow the phone to receive commands, including one to activate its microphone, Eric McDonald, a hardware engineer in Los Angeles told Wired.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
But, then their satellites will be able to see the 'flash' from the microwave.
Now you’ve done it,...now they both will track you and when one figures out the other is tracking you, they’ll track you that much more because of how important you’ve become and they don;t know why.
..and then the other one will track you even more closely because the others have raised their suspicions of you.
Just wait and duck at the right time, so they start tracking each other and then you can slip out from in between them...
No. It's not the flash from the microwave. It's the death wail of the hardware embeded spy crying out for its ultimate master to save it from the microwave minions attacking it's microprocessor.
Excellent point. . . I'm not certain that microwaving an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or any other will actually fry the electronics in them. . . and I'm unwilling to sacrifice my personal iPhone on the altar of consumer testing (or is that idiot testing) to find out. Now, if you want to test yours. . . I'll be very interested in what you learn!
I remember them mentioning VirtualBox, but I don’t recall what it was used for in their scheme. I’m thinking it was for something extra beyond the basic disable-the-LED hack, but I’ll need to check it out.
After Stuxnet, I think we need to be particularly concerned about microcontroller malware. While the consequences in that particular case were good (slowing down Iran’s nuclear development), in general I think our infrastructure is very susceptible to this sort of attack.
All they’re gonna hear is me talking about how stupid they are.
OK, I checked it out. VirtualBox wasn’t needed for the basic webcam hack that disabled the LED.
But after showing how to disable the LED, they indicated how the same method can be used to do other things, such as break out of a virtual machine. A machine running VirtualBox was their example of how to use their trick so that software inside VirtualBox can run programs in the host operating system.
So for this the point was that they can use their trick to break out of a virtual machine — once again, doing something that seems impossible at first glance.
Clearly this is all quite complicated, and I’m not 100% sure that I haven’t missed something, but I think what I’ve written is correct.
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