In this week’s Cyber News roundup, we take a look at the latest developments with Apple and Google’s COVID-19 contact tracing partnership, Apple and Facebook’s privacy battle, the great Tesla hack that nearly was, and a consequential court ruling on the NSA.
Without further ado:
Apple-Google COVID-19 Contact Tracing Update
As we enter what somehow simultaneously feels like the second week and 1,000th day of this pandemic response, we’re bearing witness to the next iteration of how we may be able to combat the spread of a virus that’s forced much of the world to close up shop.
Flash back to April: back when Tiger King still reigned supreme and professional sports were nowhere to be found. This month was also host to one of the more surprising announcements to come out of Silicon Valley in recent memory. Apple and Google, as you might remember, announced a rare partnership to develop COVID-19 contact tracing technology.
Flash forward (but also still back) to July: MLB and the NBA make their controversial returns, but the much hyped COVID-19 contact tracing technology is noticeably absent from a majority of the states across the US.
There was a pretty big and understandable reason for that: Most states didn’t want the responsibility of developing and maintaining OS-specific apps. That’s prompted Apple and Google to take the next step in this hand-holding phase, providing states with the basic framework that will allow states to simply configure the design to meet their state’s needs.
It remains to be seen how many states will now follow through with dedicated apps, or how effective those states will be in motivating their respective populations in actually downloading and using the app.
Apple Walks Back iOS 14 Privacy Promises (for now)
Speaking of iPhones, it was just a week ago that we spent time dissecting the key points in one of the latest back and forths between Apple and Facebook. Just a few days later, it appears they’re looking to hug it out.
Announcing major changes to its mobile operating system earlier this year, Apple found itself raising a banner for user privacy. The company would, among several other changes coming to iOS 14, now require apps to explicitly ask users for permission to track them across different apps.
But after receiving a wealth of criticism from Facebook over the negative implications that these user-friendly changes would have on businesses advertising on its platform, Apple is changing its mind. For now, anyway.
Apple says it will pump the brakes on its new privacy changes. Originally planning for those updates to take place alongside the launch of iOS 14 this fall, Apple now plans to give developers more time to comply with the impending changes that will now be rolled out sometime in 2021.
“We are committed to ensuring users can choose whether or not they allow an app to track them,” Apple wrote. “To give developers time to make necessary changes, apps will be required to obtain permission to track users starting early next year.”
Click here to get a better idea of what Apple has in store for user privacy.
Russian Hacker Targets Tesla
The home of the Cybertruck was on the wrong end of an attempted cyber attack. US authorities arrested and charged a Russian national who attempted to recruit and convince a Tesla employee to install malware on their employer’s network for the low, low cost of $1 million.
Elon Musk confirmed news of the attempted attack on Twitter.
According to reports, the plan was to infiltrate Tesla’s network to extract data and upload it to a remote server. Hackers would have then held the sensitive data ransom (which, if we’re being clear, likely would have netted them far more than $1 million).
FBI agents arrested the Russian hacker in Los Angeles as he tried to leave the country. If convicted, the individual could face up to five years in prison.
That NSA Thing…
Seven years removed from one of the biggest information leaks in US history, we now have a bit more clarity on the aftermath. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of Americans’ phone records — infamously brought to light at the hands of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — was unlawful.
The federal court stated that the NSA’s tactics were not only in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but also potentially unconstitutional. The court also stated that the NSA — previously citing the conviction of four domestic terrorists in 2013 — misrepresented the value in eavesdropping on American citizens, ruling that the agency’s claims were “inconsistent with the contents of the classified record.”
US Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Matt Gaetz both voiced their support for Snowden, going as far as requesting that President Donald Trump pardon the American whistleblower. Snowden, who still faces espionage charges in the US, hasn’t set foot on American soil since leaking the documents in 2013, spending a majority of the past decade living overseas in Moscow.
