Edward Snowden thinks about phone security a lot more than the average person. And with good reason, as the world-famous whistleblower revealed methods of government data collection on phone calls, and even from his exile in Russia, still remains a major advocate for digital privacy.
Snowden, together with hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, announced today at the MIT Media Lab a design for a case-like attachment to modify an iPhone, allowing you to monitor if and when the radio transmitters within the device are active. Huang is known among other things for reverse engineering parts of the original Xbox and security vulnerabilities in microSD cards.
Their device will offer security to reporters in high-risk locations
Snowden’s argument for the need for such a device is that consumer-side methods, such as turning off the radios via airplane mode, shutting off the phone entirely, or even sealing it within a Faraday cage are all not nearly secure enough when faced with a government-backed adversary. Snowden and Huang’s device is designed to offer an option for reporters and journalists traveling in areas that use high-level hacking methods to monitor devices, and where, they claim, governments can use exploits to trick you into thinking your phone is off while actually monitoring your conversations and locations. Snowden and Huang hope that their device will offer security to reporters in high-risk locations by preventing the monitoring or tracking of phones, and to ensure that reporters can definitively shut down radio connectivity but maintain use of the device.
Article source: http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/21/12247610/edward-snowden-introspection-engine-device-andrew-huang
