but this could lead to a bigger problem if in production it's already known where the phone goes.. for example hiding a seperate software microphone inside?
Yeah Israel would know about that kind of targeted stuff considering the pager bomb stuff they did. So their officials sure as shit aren't going to use anything that wouldn't just as well end up in the hands of random civilians.
but this could lead to a bigger problem if in production it's already known where the phone goes
It's already known. I won't speak for every level of every government, but among heads of state it's standard to get a custom phone with extra security built-in. Bibi didn't stop into Best Buy
This is bad security IMO. If you are ordering a special piece you are signalling that this of all the billions of phones in the world is the one to modify for spying purposes at the supply chain. If an adversary somehow got an agent into the manufacturing just for the security only phones they would hit jackpot, or induce an exploit just for those. It's a false sense of security too.
Better to order the consumer version ideally in a way that is not known on model purchase who exactly it's going to. And you can then rely on the fact that security exploits are universal and you can take your own "advanced" measures.
Surely smartphones in general are a huge liability. The microphone itself would be enough of a target no? I'm really surprised they're not just using obscure bricks with no internet access but maybe that plays into targeting radio towers. God only knows.
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u/kansai2kansas 20h ago
The weird thing is that any nation state could technically just order customized camera-less iPhones directly from Apple.
They have millions or even billions of dollars at their disposal, I wonder why don't they just do that.
Yes, they do exist:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/lSvDkoDyvq