Posted on 09/22/2020 4:37:11 PM PDT by cba123
Don’t ask him, he has no clue what he’s talking about.
Wow, that must be the first time you have not rebutted or ridiculed a security article! Now I’m worried!
That was my first thought, too.
“Your own charger” — bought on Amazon or at the 7-11 and it comes complete with built-in theft tech.
Back then, with cheap TVs, it could be both. No low pass filters on the power supplies allowed motor noise from the brushes on the AC vacuum motor to go through the power line into the set, putting static on the cheap electronics in the set. If you were getting your signal with rabbit ears, the electrical coils in the vacuum could disrupt the signal if the station was distant or particularly weak, adding static. That field could also pick up noise from the house wiring. More noise. You could even get noise from your car’s spark and ignition. Or a passing car. . . Even a human body could shield those pathetic antennas or act as wave guides to strengthen the signal by picking up a greater signal. I recall we could get the Reno Nevada TV station so I could watch Science Fiction Theater in our back bedroom with rabbit ears IF I could persuade my sister to stand like a ballerina with one leg extended on a hassock, and both arms in a circle above her head between the antenna and the direction to Reno. . . I could get a ghostly, grainy picture with sound as long as she held that pose. But for some reason, she would do it for more than about five minutes. Sisters! She’d go play with her dolls and all I’d get was a screen of snow!
I could get a perfect picture and sound on the living room TV but that required using the Tennarotor, turning the big TV antenna on its 50foot mast towards Reno. . . and Dad did like that because turning it back to that exact sweet spot that got the football games from our three local channels plus the ones in the San Francisco Bay Area, PLUS in San Jose, AND could still pull in Channel 12 (?) from Chico could take him an hour of fiddling and wishing he was a swearing man... I never heard him swear... or a drinking man. He had only one drink in his life, and that was to toast my sister’s divorce from her first husband. Moving that Tennarotor was easy, stopping it when you wanted to was impossible! The damn control had a built in random delay between when you punched stop and when it s decided to stop. So I didn’t dare turn it to Reno.
Uh, no. A genuine Apple Lightning cable on Amazon is $9.99. Third-party certified for Apple cables run about $5.99 to $12.99. You CAN buy cheaper ones, but they’re not certified by Apple and generally do not have the little computers in them that work with the devices to assure they know what kind of device they’re connected to, don’t overcharge, overheat, catch fire, etc. Apple Lightning cables are not dumb cables. They are designed to connect to a multitude of devices and communicate with them. If it’s a camera, then it does different things than if it’s a charger. It can connect to a 30" 5K monitor and transfer images at 60 frames per second. The little computer inside dedicates more connections to that task. . . and if it’s an Apple monitor, it can power it too. Try that with your $2 cable.
But what if you wear a mask?
This one seems to be based in some legitimate technological foundation that could work. The new iPhone 12 will be using USB-C thunderbolt tech connection ports so for new buyers, the level of security is much higher. But for older Lightning connected iOS device users, yeah, there is a vulnerability inherent in the original Intel design that can’t be patch around. Software can watch for it, but it’s like a Trojan. You can’t protect users from doing something stupid, like using a malicious charging cable.
I was hoping Apple would find away around Intel’s flaw. So far, no joy. So the best thing now that it’s in the wild is to warn users as this Forbes article is doing. There’s been similar hijackers out there for Android for years. They just couldn’t work on iOS devices until now.
As the article pointed out, this is not a General problem. It will be a targeted attack looking for specific persons. It’s not a huge worry. I’d be suspicious if my charging cable or charger got stolen on a trip and someone offered me a loaner.
Better option pick a random store and buy replacements on your own on the spur of the moment unless you can get to an Apple store.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
In all, ASPI’s research has identified 82 foreign and Chinese companies directly or indirectly benefiting from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang through potentially abusive labour transfer programs as recently as 2019: Abercrombie & Fitch, Acer, Adidas, Alstom, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BAIC Motor, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, BYD, Calvin Klein, Candy, Carter’s, Cerruti 1881, Changan Automobile, Cisco, CRRC, Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Founder Group, GAC Group (automobiles), Gap, Geely Auto, General Motors, Google, Goertek, H&M, Haier, Hart Schaffner Marx, Hisense, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Huawei, iFlyTek, Jack & Jones, Jaguar, Japan Display Inc., L.L.Bean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Li-Ning, Mayor, Meizu, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, Oculus, Oppo, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Roewe, SAIC Motor, Samsung, SGMW, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, Sony, TDK, Tommy Hilfiger, Toshiba, Tsinghua Tongfang, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, Xiaomi, Zara, Zegna, ZTE. Some brands are linked with multiple factories.
PLMerite knows exactly what he's talking about.
Methinks the fanboi doth protest too much.
The only way the computer (usually laptop) is hacked is charging the phone from a computer. Plugging in the cable to the computer hacks the computer.
The important point is no phone is being hacked. All of the stupid videos show the phone attacking the laptop wirelessly. The cable has wifi plus the HID driver in it.
It's not. The lightning end is doing nothing but charging the iPhone.
What if they’re all like that? Even the ones you buy?
Especially when visiting countries with bad “records”...
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I have some cables that use magnetic connectors. They are data only. Can’t use them for anything at all but charging. Really nice, since the connector ends are swappable. I have a tiny box of various connectors, and one cable for multiple devices. Nice. (unless you want to charge a bunch of things at once.)
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