237
Beeper vs Apple battle intensifies: Lawmakers demand DOJ investigation - Android Authority
(www.androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
237 points (96.5% liked)
Technology
59374 readers
7834 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That's not how beeper worked. It actually connected from the device directly to the iMessage network. You're thinking of all the other services that required a virtualized OSX install somewhere to act as a translation layer.
The beeper application is not trusted by anyone except Beeper. As an Apple user, I trust Apple by buying their devices and participating in their services. I have no trust relationship with Beeper whatsoever. They have the the ability to decrypt my messages unbeknownst to me, and do whatever they want with them. Maybe they'll display them to users nicely in the app. Maybe they'll do something nefarious with them.
Having user activity flow into 3rd parties is a major security problem. Maybe you don't see it, but it's real and it's there. We're still trying to clean up the adtech mess on the web after how many years?
That's an inane argument. Your message always gets decrypted at its end point. Beeper wasn't doing MiTM attacks. They weren't hijacking messages. They functioned and behaved as a legitimate end point. If you don't want a non Apple pleb getting your messages, you simply don't send them one. Which is basically what your complaint boils down to.
While I agree Apple should have some control over their network. Which they clearly don't in any way that matters. The controll they're exerting shouldn't be allowed. As long as beeper were behaving, which they were. They should be allowed. That you feel security is defined by being handed by a company inept at security in this case, that's your problem. Secure messages are sent and received from all manner of platforms regularly without issue. No Apple required
Ok, I'm sorry but this comment and this thread is just all over the place.
That we know of. Oh, and they're literally a man in the middle, someone the user shouldn't expect is in between the data they're sending. okay, I'll give you the middle is squishy here because it's really when it's decrypted on the client, but still...
Which, they weren't. They were spoofing credentials and accessing a system without authorization from the system owner. It doesn't matter if Apple left a hole in the system. Hell, they could have set the password to be '12345' it's still probably a crime, at least, based on this list of crimes:
The whole thing basically reiterates over and over that just because you technically have access, that doesn't mean you are permitted.
Okay, makes sense.
How many iMessage breaches has Apple had?
The "control" is discovering that someone else made a copy of the key to their locks. If i told you that I now have a copy of the key to your house (but trust me bro I'm only going to use it like you would which means using your shit and and selling your food to others) oh and that now basically anyone has a copy to the key to your house, would you change the locks?
Which they were?! They literally are using fake credentials, accessing a system without authorization, using the infrastructure including the real costs of said infrastructure.
Welp, you've just provided the closing arguments for Apple's lawyers and any sort of monopoly concern.
The argument of security is bunk, Apple are integrating the more widely used RCS protocol into iMessage. It'll mean they won't need their own bespoke protocol either. Besides Apple is known for calling stuff security changes when really they rely on obscurity to not notice how insecure components are such as the method iMessage uses to authenticate now.
When done other apps for messaging will explode in commonality and blow the case open. They just need to finish implementing it.
https://www.engadget.com/what-is-rcs-and-how-is-it-different-from-sms-and-imessage-202334057.html