Apple targeted by CIA spies for years, say new Snowden documents
Source: The Verge, The Intercept
A new report by The Intercept says that researchers working for the CIA have been involved in a "multi-year, sustained effort" to crack Apple security measures on iPhones and iPads. Documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden detail a number of initiatives, including an attempt to crack encryption keys implanted into Apple's mobile processor, and a method compromising Xcode — the Apple tool used to create the vast majority of iOS apps.
Although the report doesn't include details of any successful operations against Apple, it highlights the ongoing battle between national security agencies and technology companies, as well as the hypocrisy of the US government. It was only in March this year that President Barack Obama criticized China for its plans forcing tech companies to install security backdoors for government surveillance. Instead, as The Intercept notes, China is only following America's lead.
"If U.S. products are OK to target, that’s news to me," Matthew Green, a cryptography expert at Johns Hopkins University’s Information Security Institute told The Intercept. "Tearing apart the products of U.S. manufacturers and potentially putting backdoors in software distributed by unknowing developers all seems to be going a bit beyond ‘targeting bad guys.’ It may be a means to an end, but it’s a hell of a means."
US researchers' efforts to target Apple's products, as well as those from competitors like Microsoft, were presented at a secret annual CIA-sponsored conference known as the "Jamboree." In a presentation from 2012, researchers from Sandia Labs gave a talk titled "Strawhorse: Attacking the MacOS and iOS Software Development." In it, they showed how a comprised version of Xcode would allow spies to siphon off iPhone and iPad data, create "remote backdoors" on connected Mac computers, and disable core security features on Apple devices. It's not clear how spy agencies would get developers to use the comprised version of the software.
Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/10/8181531/cia-tagets-apple-xcode-encryption
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Oooof. How much did Apple pay Greenwald to release this today?
Sucker born every minute, I guess.
I am still waiting for that list of names of "everyone" in the US that the NSA was spying on. Did I miss it? It was supposed to be ground breaking news according to Grenwald. 
For the few frightened authoritarian minded on here, whatever Snowden reveals can never ever be helpful or enlightening for the public. If Snowden releases documents showing proof of government malfeasance, and Greenwald writes about it, these craven few , like Pavlovian dogs, start barking that either:
a. Its all redundant information that everyone knew already...so just ignore him (pleeeeeeeeease)
b. What he releases is putting lives in danger, he's a traitor and probably working for Putin, oh...and the Chinese too.
c. All of the above (somehow)
But the #1 rule is simply to take any new revelation with preconceived disdain and contempt, lest they actually find out anything bad in regard to authorities abusing their civil rights, because...um.....er......."USA USA USA USA ...!"
