Does Big Brother have Spyware on iPhones?

It might be 30 years later but George Orwell definitely had something right “Big Brother” is watching us. It looks like the NSA has planned to put spyware on iPhones.

Leaked documents on Monday showed all of us that the NSA has spyware specifically designed to target iPhones. The program called DROPOUTJEEP can intercept SMS messages, access data, activate the microphone and broadcast your location to any interested parties, namely the NSA.

The leaked documents were shared with the public by the German magazine, Der Spiegel and security researcher Jacob Appelbaum. According to Der Spiegel specialized NSA teams were to intercept iPhone shipments so they could install the spyware before they continued to the end users.

All of this information is based off of a top secret document from 2008, at that point the NSA claimed is was 100% successful. According to the document, it appears to be not much different than many standard jailbreaks currently out there, and needs the user to physically interact with the iOS device before the program can be activated. One only wonders how much it has been improved in the last six years.

Apple denies having worked with the NSA on the development of this program. Apple provided a statement to AllThingsD and have let us all know that they plan “to stay ahead of malicious hackers and defend our customers from security attacks, regardless of who’s behind them.” Apple promises to continue making their products more secure.

Image of 1984 poster courtesy of the Foxling

Originally posted 2014-01-03 09:20:51.