Polish MP Returns iPad Citing Lack of Control 148
rysiek writes "Polish MP and spokesperson for one of Polish political parties Dariusz Joski returned his state-issued iPad, citing lack of control (Google-translated). Polish Free and Open Source Software Foundation (of Anti-ACTA fame) offered (free of charge, of course) to help him choose, install and configure Linux on his laptop, including setting-up disk encryption. We are still waiting for an answer from the MP."
Another concern of his appears to have been a lack of security regarding communications with other government officials.
I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... (Score:5, Insightful)
Can anyone enlighten me?
Re:I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well as a politician I'm pretty sure he had one eye on the free publicity for him this would cause, seems to have worked I'd say.
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...but this story to me reads as a "Man does not like thing." fluff piece.
Maybe there's more to it. Let me try: even a politician (who, on average, seem to be utterly clueless on technology) realizes that Apples walled garden is a bad thing.
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It is acknowledged that there are many things you can't do with an iPad, but the same is true of a hammer - I can't inflate a baloon with a hammer, but that doesn't stop it from being perfectly good at driving nails.
To me this story is a comparable story to "Polititian retuns government car because he can't change the paint colour."
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The hammer analogy has been used before and is completely irrelevant. Hammers have always been designed for a single task. Computing devices are general tools that have traditionally been open to the owner to work with and change as he pleases. The only limits have traditionally been limits in imagination and coding skill. The last 10 years has seen a new breed of computing devices that ARTIFICIALLY limited, broken by design, so that you work within limits set by the overlord errr Apple and/or have those re
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Re:I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wow. Are you me or am I you? Our posts were almost identical (the post just above yours). Let me guess, you're about 6'3 with Sean Connery level good looks, great brain on your shoulders and absolutely DOES NOT live in your moms basement?
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I guess it depends on which side of the device convergence field you're coming from. I've always regarded tablets as being more in the vein of specialized utility devices (hence the hammer analogy) than computers. I do own a tablet (Nexus7 FWIW), but I regard it (and tablets as a whole in their current incarnation) as more of a toy than a tool.
For pretty much anything more than web browsing (or anything I can't do with my phone), I turn to a 'real' computer. I di
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An iPad is not a general purpose computing device.
"There's an app for that." Actually, that was for the iPhone. The iPad is pretty much the iPhone with a bigger screen and not intended to act as a phone. The device is locked down because Apple wants iron-fisted control, not because it inherently needs to be.
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The thing is that the even though some regard the walled garden thing to be a problem, it's a problem that most consumers are ok with, or indifferent to.
You're responding to an easily assailable strawman and chopping it down. If I were more cynical, I'd think you wrote the AC comment you're replying to.
The politician gave very clear reasons why he didn't want to use the iPad and it wasn't some vague notion of "walled garden = do not want". He rejected it because in his opinion he lacked control over data stored on the device. He wondered if the data is backed up and the back-up service gets breeched then the public will be severely harmed. My Polish i
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You're right, the walled garden isn't the thrust of what the politician was saying; I was just replying directly to the comment.
However, I think my point still stands - the politician doesn't like something about a device, but the specific issue he raises is a general concern about data security - not something specific to an iPad. As far as I understand it (not being a regular user of Apple products), i
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If I were more cynical, I'd think you wrote the AC comment you're replying to.
My feelings are hurt.
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Are you saying you can't hammer in nails by using an iPad?
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that would be more like a hammer that only allows you to hit round nails - no square, threaded or "striped". you would have to buy a separate hammer for each type, and for some types they would also be restricted by diameter and length of the nails.
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Re:I like Apple bashing as much as the next man... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the big story is that there still exist people who don't know about the lack of control. On Slashdot we all know; in the mainstream most people don't.
Obviously the guy cares about being The master of his computer, knowing who has access to his imap password, etc. Had he known how bad this particular personal computer would be about such things, he would have avoided it from the beginning. But he didn't.
This suggests to me that more educating of the public, could help everyone a lot. People ought to know about iOS' problems before, not after. Finding out after is why Apple is doing so well (as Microsoft before them), and at the public's expense since control issues are zero-sum games.
This guy should never have been put into this situation where he has to get rid of the already-paid-for junk. But unlike many problems, we actually have the power to prevent this one, simply by spreading the word.
Apple-bashing isn't sufficient; you have to say why you're Apple-bashing. Explain the problem enough, and eventually people won't need things bashed anymore, because the products' defects will scream at the prospective customers for themselves. They'll see that some products aren't advertised as serving their users or as being secure, and realize "oh right, that stuff matters, and it's suspicious when the manufacturer weasels about it."
There's no reason we can't get the state of the art in security (who has access to your email?) at least back to as well as it was 20 years ago (which was pretty bad, but I'm only comparing it to 2012 so the bar is absurdly low). All it takes it getting the public to think that way.
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If by that you mean "man realizes there are significant security implications to using the iPad, they are unacceptable given the data he will work with, and the user isn't able to make the changes necessary to fix it", then yes.
Much like the story of a man having poison in his coffee is a 'man does not like condiment' story.
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I fully accept that he doesn't like the security implications, but that's kind of what I'm getting at - if a device (which for the sake of clarity vsvs another conversation I'm having above, I regard as more of a specialized tool than a 'real' multi-purpose computer) doesn't do what you need/want it to do, then you get rid of it (which I simplified as "do not want". From my point of view, I didn't get why this was a story, however as per the discussion above, if you treat the
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It's a story because it COULD be suitable if Apple would loosen their grip a bit and because the breathless hype generally glosses over the very important security implications of the iPad.
Throw in the OMG a politician actually understood technology! aspect and there you go! :-)
How about this nice double cappuccino? It only has a little cyanide in it!
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What I did get from the article is what I assumed to be the principle objection - a quote stating "Admin has access to everything." - which holds true for any organisation which uses email.
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The gist of the story (native Polish speaker here):
1) The guy lost his iPad and asked the admins what he should do.
2) They told him they could copy all data from the tablet onto a CD/DVD.
3) He then asked them if they could also copy his private e-mails and they said 'yes'
4) He reached the conclusion that since they could copy and store all his data it could easily be made public (and, knowing his party's track record, no wonder it scared him shitless).
5) He returned the iPad and got himself a laptop.
So
Lack of control? (Score:5, Funny)
The MP probably doesn't realize that Apple has plenty of control over all iPads.
Re:Lack of control? (Score:5, Insightful)
On the contrary. He seems to have realized exactly that - and so he returned the thing. Ipads are fine for surfing and "family use", but I wouldn't trust one to keep state secrets. For that, you use a machine where you can inspect all the software - and you preferably have some trusted experts to set it up. The man is just being sensible.
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but I wouldn't trust one to keep state secrets...The man is just being sensible.
Obviously in the minority, in the US anyway.
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MPs don't generally have any state secrets to keep. Just saying.
Re:Lack of control? (Score:5, Insightful)
It does not look from that article that it has been "ruled uncrackable", except by NeoWin. They seem to assume that because AES is "uncrackable", and because Apple claims that they do not store the key, their implementation must therefore be uncrackable / without flaws.
Anyone who has watched security for any length of time knows that "hypothetically uncrackable" is a lot different than "practically secure". Maybe they leak key details; maybe they dont properly santize RAM before the iPad powers down (and therefore it may be susceptable to a cold boot attack).
Until some respected crypto expert looks at the thing, any declarations about security on the IOS are worthless marketing tools.
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Maybe they hand administrative control over to any clown that says he's you over the phone...
not the first story (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:not the first story (Score:5, Insightful)
it's that there's no mouse and keyboard or printing support (as far as I know)
You... don't know. Here's a list of a couple hundred printers [apple.com] that work with the iPad, here is a roundup of keyboard/case solutions for the iPad [theverge.com] from The Verge. I'm not going to search for mouse setups for a multi-touch device for various reasons.
You know what really bugs me about your post? Since the first time I logged into slashdot, I've been reading about cases of FUD working against Linux and Open Source Software. Now I'm seeing Linux and Android fanboys with their heads up their asses, spreading the same kind of FUD. "Oh, as far as I know, it doesn't work with external keyboards." sure brings me back to the times of, "It seems to me that if it was good, they'd charge money for it."
It's kinda sad that Apple hates on Linux then actually released a product that's less functional, less flexible, and less compatible with other software than Linux.
Apple hates on Linux? Linux isn't even on Apple's radar. What they've made is a product that's more functional and flexible than a phone, while being considerably more portable than a laptop. They weren't trying to create a new laptop, they were aiming for a product between laptops and phones. Most people have extremely low demands of their computers. Email, Skype, a browser and a photo editing application. Hell, my girlfriend is technical enough to fix her own router, but I haven't seen her do anything on her laptop that she couldn't do on a tablet in the four months we've been living together.
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You should probably also mention that we're still in early iterations of tablet design and functionality - just as the laptop today is a supercomputer compared to early laptops, the tablets of the future will resemble nothing we use today (except maybe form factor).
Re:not the first story (Score:5, Informative)
You... don't know. Here's a list of a couple hundred printers [apple.com] that work with the iPad
The vast vast majority do NOT, unless you do some crazy hacks to set up an AirPrint service on your laptop to make it act like a print server for IOS. There are literally thousands of printers out there, and most are not AirPrint compatible.
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Sure, but the refuted claim was "it's that there's no mouse and keyboard or printing support (as far as I know)". At least two of those three have been rebutted here.
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What the iPad offers is not "printing support" as it has come to be defined by common practice over the last 30 years of consumer computing.
Some hack bolted on as an afterthought? Someone could be forgiven for not considering that "printing support".
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There is printing support... However I havn't seen a printer that a business uses that supports it though.
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You mean rooting to bypass the limitations you had agreed to when you signed up with the cellular service provider?
Tethering works fine on any un-rooted iOs device where the service provider includes it in your contract.
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Not to mention that, at least in my experience, the iPad only "works" with printers. The last time I tried to print something off an iPad using AirPrint, I had to reboot the iPad to even get it to see the printer. After which it did print - eventually. I'm not sure why it's so ungodly slow, but it is.
But, hey, it "worked." After finding out the brain-dead way you turn off an iPad. (Yep, that's intuitive - hold the "lock" button.)
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I know it's hard to do, but try and think of a common scenario where someone who does not own an iPad may be asked to help figure out why it can't print to the printer it's next to. Hint: it involves other people, possibly related.
I also happen to be working on an iPad app for my job, so there's that too, but so far all I've ever done involves the iPad simulator and not the actual device. And Squiggle-Q doesn't work to reboot the actual hardware. (But don't worry about the app - you'll never see it, because
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you'll never see it, because there's no reason for it to even exist, let alone be an iOS app, let alone be an iPad-only iOS app
Hehe, the company I work for did the exact same thing and were all excited about it (and it never went anywhere because nobody used it). I am wo
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You... don't know. Here's a list of a couple hundred printers [apple.com] that work with the iPad
The vast vast majority do NOT, unless you do some crazy hacks to set up an AirPrint service on your laptop to make it act like a print server for IOS. There are literally thousands of printers out there, and most are not AirPrint compatible.
Oh man, this is like an echo chamber from 10-15 years ago. The vast majority of printers were not supported by Linux for years and years, now most of them are due to CUPS. You know, that system created by Apple. Anyway, I had to google printer support for iPads (although I had heard they have it) because in 2012... I don't print documents. I've had to print 2 sheets of paper since summer 2011, I just emailed them to the print shop and had them printed out for me.
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now most of them are due to CUPS. You know, that system created by Apple.
Ooohhh...like YouTube created by Google, Skype created by Microsoft and MySpace created by News Ltd...or is it now created by Justin Timberlake?
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What planet are you from? Seriously? Alternatives to Windows are in direct, close competition since there's not a whole lot of them and since Apple is ungodly expensive and Linux is free
Can we stop with the FUD again? If Linux is free then Apple is damn cheap since Mountain Lion clocks in at a whopping $20. Windows is extremely expensive, with Win 7 Pro Upgrade coming in at $170.
If we're talking about hardware then realize that Linux does not compete with Apple as pretty much nobody no major retailer offers ready-to-go desktop products with Linux installed. Now, I have no qualms about calling Apple PC hardware a premium priced product. Please do realize that they have a total of 7 product
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"Hell, my girlfriend is technical enough to fix her own router, but I haven't seen her do anything on her laptop that she couldn't do on a tablet in the four months we've been living together."
Well, let's just hope that she doesn't have to download a firmware update from her router and upload it to the device through a standard HTML file upload form element on her iPad then.
Yes, that's right, because of iOS' restrictions, it can't even perform this sort of basic task.
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I don't see why, in this day and age, with computing power to cheap and ubiquitous, a router can't update itself, or at least have the functionality to allow a user to update it without involving another computer (except to send a command to tell it to update itself).
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Sure, but that doesn't excuse Apple's flagship devices missing support for basic HTML form elements in the browser they ship with.
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http://www.apple.com/ipad/accessories/ [apple.com]
Apple Wireless Keyboard
The incredibly thin Apple Wireless Keyboard uses Bluetooth technology, which makes it compatible with iPad. And you’re free to type wherever you like — with the keyboard in front of your iPad or on your lap.
AirPrint [apple.com]
This took 2 seconds to find. It's amazing how low the bar for 'insightful' and 'nformative' mods is these days. Apparently all you have to do is make ignorant anti-Apple statements.
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From what I've seen AirPrint will only work if the router supports something Apple call "bonjour". It seems that very few do.
I only know this based on trying to get a wifi HP printer working with a Macbook for a friend and failing miserably.
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More FUD.
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All I can say is that I tried to talk someone through it, googled extensively and found lots of forum posts where people were having the same problem, tried all of the suggestions and eventually gave up.
I'm sure if my friend had an airport router it would have worked, and I found, I think, one netgear product that claimed to support bonjour. Although it does appear to be an Apple implementation of a standard(ish) protocol, I just couldn't get it to work. Any tips to get it running on a generic 3G wifi route
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Bonjour is Apple's implementation of the principles of zeroconf [wikipedia.org]. Other implementations exist too.
But I guess you will want to wait for a public standard before you commit to anything.
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AirPrint [apple.com]
This took 2 seconds to find. It's amazing how low the bar for 'insightful' and 'nformative' mods is these days. Apparently all you have to do is make ignorant anti-Apple statements.
Which is ofcourse fine if you are buying a printer *after* you have bought your iPad. If you already own one then you are almost certainly screwed.
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I have a wireless printer that came without AirPrint support (bought it before AirPrint was released). One firmware update later, and it now is compatible. And it's no expensive high-end printer either. Matter of fact, I don't like it very much, but it sure works with AirPrint.
Anyway, what really peeves me is that you need any driver to connect to a printer.
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From your link, the Apple Wireless keyboard costs $69. In Europe that apparently translates to around €75. For that money, you get something you can't carry around, has no other uses except for Apple devices, and will kill your wrists and/or fingers.
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Eh, it's a fucking Bluetooth keyboard. It works with everything that uses Bluetooth keyboards. What the fuck made you think it only works with Apple devices? FUDster.
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I don't know, I've never seen it used with anything except Macs. That said, Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Wireless-Keyboard-MC184LL-VERSION/dp/B005DLDO4U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345662872&sr=8-2&keywords=apple+keyboard) says this
System Requirements
* Bluetooth-enabled Mac computer with Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and existing keyboard and mouse for initial setup.
* iPad (some function keys designed for use on the Mac will not work on iPad)
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Strange; my former boss used it with his HP laptop, and I use mine with my PS3. Apple probably want to focus on their own products though.
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(as far as I know)
[mythbuster]Well, now, *there's* your problem.[/mythbuster]
Does it occur to you people that the very existence of separate laptop and tablet markets means there's different use cases?
I can put together a gaming rig in my sleep, and have designed computing systems that have gone into space, and yet I have my little iPad for relaxing at home after work and I just want to watch a video or get some news. Why is that such an offensive and horrible thing to some folks?
Walls? It's loaded with ripped DVDs and torre
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"Why is that such an offensive and horrible thing to some folks?"
Because They didn't invent it, and it isn't RMS Gold Stamp Certified Not Evil!
When will Apple start selling computers? (Score:2)
I've always wondered by they exclusively sell iPods, tablets, and phones; they should come up with some sort of personal computer. Not one that uses iOS, mind you, but something built on top of UNIX. Maybe it would also have a nice GUI (they could copy the icon-based desktop UI from Windows & Linux), but it would need to have terminal access with full command-line power.
Also it should have an available development environment with the ability to run your own code natively. These computers would need key
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Sure, if you just need to browse the odd website, go with an iPad, but they're designed for consuming, not producing.
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I never saw too much business adoption of netbooks. But I saw a lot of people going from normal notebook to the iPad. Not always because it is cool. But more to the fact that they are smaller and lighter and run longer without a battery. The biggest use I have seen for them is for email, and keeping notes, most have an external keyboard attached to the case.
Netbooks were a little bulkier, They needed to be wall charged, not USB charged with the PC next to them, or the USB port modern cars seem to have n
sounds like he might've had a sentient tablet (Score:5, Funny)
From the Google-translated story, a quotation:
"Admin has access to everything. Tablet I am"
Sounds ominous indeed.
Ah yes, Poland (Score:5, Interesting)
The land I was born in, the land that I grew up in, the land that I live in and the land that I love... ...with some of the worst (or best, depending on your definition of the word) politicians I've ever seen. You have to understand - they don't use those iPads for anything other than browsing porn ( http://www.komputerswiat.pl/media/2012/187/2456339/porno-tablety-sejm-1.jpg [komputerswiat.pl] ) or funnyjunk-like equivalents. They're wasting money - and they're wasting our money, because the iPads were state-funded. We're letting them do that - and there is nothing we can do to change that.
This isn't just some generic "politics == stupid" sentiment - this is a matter of analyzing at least the major decisions of the last 100 years and coming to the conclusion that the decisionmakers are idiots. It would be at least comforting to know that the voters are aware of it, but no dice - politics in Poland are either a taboo subject or restricted entirely to the Internet - and we all know how debating on the Internet works. I can honestly tell you that no camp currently registered for voting into the Sejm (the Senate 2.0) is worth voting for. The two major parties, PO (centrist/right) and PiS (right/national) are so deep in shitslinging between them that they lost focus on running the country, which breeds tons of discontent and lots of potential for corruption, both internal and external - they were both caught in the act, too. The alternative parties aren't much better: SLD (left/social) are basically repurposed commies from the last system and notorious for their mob connections, Ruch Palikota (liberal) is led by a huge idiot who changes his views like a goddamn flag, and UPR (left social/right economy) is helmed by a guy who is first to rip off "working" solutions from other countries with no regard for both current possibilities or needs of Poland.
This situation is perfect for PR however, since voting usually is not between "the best candidates" but "the least evil", so it just takes the right amount of spin to completely ruin a party's chances.
But it starts to show. Voter participation is dropping with each term - which in the short term is very bad since it leads to fringe voting, but in the long run demonstrates that we're starting to get tired of this shit.
It crossed my mind to post this anonymously to be honest, since Polish politics are a matter of very heated (and very vulgar) debate on the Polish-speaking Internet, but, ah well.
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The land I was born in, the land that I grew up in, the land that I live in and the land that I love... ...with some of the worst (or best, depending on your definition of the word) politicians I've ever seen. You have to understand - they don't use those iPads for anything other than browsing porn ( http://www.komputerswiat.pl/media/2012/187/2456339/porno-tablety-sejm-1.jpg [komputerswiat.pl] ) or funnyjunk-like equivalents.
That's Facebook isn't it?
On the whole I agree with your sentiments about politics. Ultimately everything we read is PR, there's hardly any news any more, and even the excellent journalists I work with are limited to 30 second sound bites outside closed offices. You get occasional great reports - mostly in papers, but sometimes on the bbc.
You get great live coverage on tv too, skys coverage of te fall of tripoli was a masterpiece.
But the bulk of news is generated by pr companies, and until the public realise
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Your post indicates how much alike we all are, no matter where we are from. Corruption, like pollution, does not respect political or cultural boundaries.
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Sounds just like America.
Same here. They've made political discourse so unpleasa
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At least you actually have alternative parties. I bet they are on the ballot across the country too. Here we have exactly one third party candidate that's on the ballot in all 50 states.
In my opinion, this is one of the greatest failings of the political system in the United States. If we had a system whereby third party candidates could get a seat even if they didn't "win" it all then people would actually get some exposure to alternative non-Republicrat party line debate on the issues. Things would have a chance to "click" which is very difficult on a campaign trail as the main preoccupation is getting votes not deep reflection on solving difficult problems. What happens now is the 2
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In the opinions of any Democratic or Republican candidate it's one of the greatest strengths. This is why the most important vote you can cast is for a third party. Any third party.
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this is a matter of analyzing at least the major decisions of the last 100 years and coming to the conclusion that the decisionmakers are idiots.
Not to be rude, but weren't most of the major Polish decisions of the last 100 years made by Russians or Germans?
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Ah, this is one of them war questions. No matter what I say right now, in Poland I'd have a mininum of 20 daughter posts within seconds, 16 of which were calling me various names, with differing levels of vulgarity. Truth to be told, I wrote that number mostly under the influence of emotions, but I'll try to entertain your question as best as possible.
This all depends on whom do you treat as a "governing entity" in wartime Poland. We've got a choice between the invading forces, the Government-In-Exile, or t
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However, it was more than just a war question, I was surprised that it seemed you would credit Polish politicians for decisions made under the Soviets, as well.
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Ah, sorry, it is most often forgotten that we were dependant on the Soviets up until 1989, but I rarely press the issue - the most important "bits" are very recent and have been reported better than I could summarize.
While it is true that we were very dependant on Soviet help for rebuilding and reconstruction after the war, the truth is our local representatives had a lot more power than initially credited, in turn leading me to believe that we could play for a lot more than we finally received. For at leas
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Here's how you start--start talking to your neighbors. All of them.
I'm being serious.
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You know, I expected this kind of comment sooner or later, though mostly as sarcasm, but since you're being serious, I will answer truthfully. There is a fundamental problem with this suggestion:
I don't want to.
Power corrupts, always, and even if I remain "on course" with my proceedings, that is strengthening the country, I am sure that i would not remain unaffected, at best playing this situation to my own strength, Vetinari style, or, at worst, seeing no problem with being corrupt. Also, I would need to g
Local IT control, _not_ Apple. (Score:5, Informative)
Guy lost his gov-issued iPad.
Local IT admin said he can recover all his data and burn on CD, so MP doesn't need to worry it's lost. Data including his _private_ emails that was on iPad.
This is what set him off to return the iPad. Not Apple control.
Original iPad wasn't found he bought a replacement one from private money and returned it. Good guy!
As a form of protest he posted "Admins have access to everything!" on his Facebook before returning device. 300 of government officials (out of 460) use such iPads for work.
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Guy lost his gov-issued iPad.
Local IT admin said he can recover all his data and burn on CD, so MP doesn't need to worry it's lost. Data including his _private_ emails that was on iPad.
This is what set him off to return the iPad. Not Apple control.
Original iPad wasn't found he bought a replacement one from private money and returned it. Good guy!
As a form of protest he posted "Admins have access to everything!" on his Facebook before returning device. 300 of government officials (out of 460) use such iPads for work.
Private emails on the device? Do they not use Exchange for government email? Why can't he use an IMAP service like iCloud or a myriad of other providers for his email? Why not setup a free iCloud account so that he could have remotely wiped his iPad after he lost it? Why didn't he have a strong passcode on the iPad?
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Exactly. Thanks for the summary. I'd tell people to read the damn article, but most of them can't read Polish, and the translation is gibberish.
The issue here is that the admins were keeping backups of the data, and the owner of the data wasn't aware of it. (We don't really know whose fault that is; maybe the guy just didn't read the memo from IT.) Are they encrypting the data so that only the owner can decode it? Is the backup process opt-in or opt-out? The article doesn't say.
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What a surprise: administrators can read your email.
This is not a surprise. So can managers. They can do a lot more than that, too, like send email from you. We're trained to not do this, of course - just as users are trained to not use work resources for personal use to avoid the possibility of a personal privacy breech. This is not a very big request, and it's violation has obvious consequences brought on by your own actions.
People have two basic choices: use work things which can be monitored, or use per
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I read (the badly translated) article and this all doesn't make sense.
If the MP LOST his iPad then HOW did the IT Admin recover his emails?
Presumably because the emails where on an email server somewhere. And since this is a government email account probably that was on a government server not something Apple had any control over.
So to summarize:
- he was given an iPad
- he setup email on iPad, probably imap
- he uses iPad for a while
- he looses iPad
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Does anyone see the irony of him posting that message to facebook?
Not really. He intended the message to be public. For things like that, Facefuck is actually a legitimate choice.
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Not a fan of this particular politician, but...
"Fact that he is suppose to be baffled by IT's access to his emails just proves how tech savvy he is."
Why exactly? I can tell you I'd be pissed if I found out that our company's IT had access to my private e-mails. They're on a different server and I use TLS, so that would mean remote access, backups in background, etc. If that was part of the rules, I'd be fine with that - a bit irked, maybe, but rules are rules, no reason to be angry if you were informed in
Sloppy IT Security Practices? (Score:2)
In otherwords too hard to pirate (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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It is? What's the magic incantation to turn that on?
I ask because of tools like iExplorer [macroplant.com], which let you access the entire iOS device's file system and download files unencrypted.
Which means that if it's on by default, it's trivial to bypass. I've used the tool I linked before to try and debug a broken iPad - you just plug it in, and it can pull files off the device, just like that. It's also not the only solution [google.com].
And that's not mentioning things like iCloud backup, which is turned on by default last I chec
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These apps don't work unless the iDevice is unlocked when you plug it in, or you have the backup password.
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"backup password."
There should never be a backup password to a secure system. You lost the password? Too bad, not even you can get your data.
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You've missed the bit about security auditing that the OP mentioned. I hope you remember the Apple file vault debacle, which allowed users to recover the file vault password by a simple one-line grep statement that you could copy & paste in terminal? It took Apple several years to close this hole.
It would be pretty naive to believe that iOS can be considered good enough for confidential information. But I guess the other poster has a point that it's pretty hard to use an iPad for anything useful anyway.
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You've missed the bit about security auditing that the OP mentioned. I hope you remember the Apple file vault debacle, which allowed users to recover the file vault password by a simple one-line grep statement that you could copy & paste in terminal? It took Apple several years to close this hole.
It would be pretty naive to believe that iOS can be considered good enough for confidential information. But I guess the other poster has a point that it's pretty hard to use an iPad for anything useful anyway...
Things have moved on...
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428477/the-iphone-has-passed-a-key-security-threshold/ [technologyreview.com]