government

WhatsApp faces new encryption challenge after London attack

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WhatsApp on iOS
WhatsApp users have been waiting for better notifications.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

WhatsApp is under new pressure to provide a government backdoor following the recent terror attack in London.

U.K. home secretary Amber Rudd said it is “completely unacceptable” that law enforcement agencies are unable to read messages and conversations that are secured by end-to-end encryption.

FBI says nobody should expect privacy in America

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"There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America," says FBI director James Comey.
Photo: CNN

FBI director James Comey has warned that we should not expect “absolute privacy” in America. His comments come just days after a WikiLeaks dump revealed the CIA’s incredible arsenal of malware and viruses used to spy on iPhones and other smart devices.

Speaking at a Boston College conference on cybersecurity this week, Comey said that while the government cannot invade our privacy without good reason, “there is no place outside of judicial reach.”

Apple has ‘constructive’ meeting with India over local factory

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Apple supplier is increasing its ability to build masses of iPhones in India
Apple's plans to set up shop in India are slowly but surely moving forward.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has confirmed it has had a “constructive” meeting with the Indian government over plans to open a local manufacturing facility.

Its statement comes less than a week after the company issued a list of demands that included lengthy tax breaks and a waiver on customs duties.

Nancy Pelosi: The U.S. government invented the iPhone

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Why Salesforce chief gave up AppStore.com for Apple
Steve Jobs? Wasn't he the guy who helped the government invent the iPhone?
Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC

Apple may be one of the world’s profitable tech company, but you know who invented its biggest single product, the iPhone? If you’re House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the answer is simple: not Steve Jobs, Jony Ive or any combination of Apple employees — but rather the federal government.

Check out the video below.

Apple winning as lawmakers give up on forced backdoors

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iPhone SE
The FBI won't get its backdoor anytime soon.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

U.S. lawmakers are said to be giving up on their push for new encryption laws that would require companies like Apple to create software backdoors that allow the government to access our devices.

It’s thought the lack of White House support and Apple’s high-profile battle with the Justice Department, which was unable to force the company into providing an iPhone unlock, are some of the reasons why supporters are losing hope.

Attorney general wants Silicon Valley to help catch terrorists who’ve ‘gone dark’

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Apple Security Jacket
Loretta Lynch wants tech companies to work with the government.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Attorney General Loretta Lynch will argue that the U.S. government and the tech industry must work together to take down criminals and terrorists when she speaks at a San Francisco cybersecurity conference today.

While Lynch won’t directly refer to Apple’s current FBI standoff in her speech to tech leaders at the RSA Conference, she will describe the dangers of criminals “going dark” by using technologies such as encrypted smartphones. As such, she wants a “frank dialogue and fruitful partnership” between Washington and Silicon Valley.

Surprise! Digital Content May Actually Cost Less After U.K. Tax Change

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Following a change to VAT (value added tax) legislation in the United Kingdom, there have been a lot of reports suggesting that Apple customers in the U.K. may soon have to pay more when buying from iTunes and the App Store.

As it turns out, those reports are likely incorrect.

You see, Apple has been charging Brits 23% VAT on digital content until now — but the U.K. VAT rate is only 20%.

Apple Devices Will Account For 11% Of Corporate & Government IT Spending By 2015 [Analyst]

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Speaking to Apple employees who worked at the company during its first decade, the people who seemed most frustrated were the ones tasked with getting big business to buy Apple computers, instead of the IBM units they were used to. What a difference a day several decades makes.

Although Windows is still the operating system system you’ll find in most corporate and government offices today, a new study by Forrester Research shows how the popularity of iDevices is prompting corporate tech managers to change their traditional buying habits.

Apple Explains How It Handles Government Requests Following PRISM Scandal

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imessageiphone

Apple has issued a statement which explains its commitment to customer privacy and how it handles government requests for data following the PRISM scandal. The Cupertino company has reiterated that it did not know about the PRISM program until June 6 when it was first contacted by the media, and that it does not provide government agencies with direct access to its servers.

Apple’s App Store Named In Chinese Porn Investigation

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iPhone-App-Store

Apple’s App Store has been included in a list of websites and app stores that have been investigated for providing pornographic content in China. The list, published by state-owned newspaper People’s Daily, comes just a month after a government regulator named the App Store as a source of “obscene pornography,” despite Apple’s strict policy against pornographic apps.

White House Says Cell Phone Unlocking Should Be Legalized

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State_of_the_Union_Obama

Last month, a petition was created on the White House’s ‘We The People’ website that demanded the White House ask Congress to rescind its decision to make unlocking cellphones illegal.

After 114,000 signatures were collected on the petition, the White House invited experts on telecommunications, technology and copyright law to come over to the White House and talk about the issue.

The official White House response was issued today stating that the Obama Administration believes that consumers should be able to unlock their cellphones without risking criminal penalties.

What IT Wants To See In iOS 6 [Feature]

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iOS 6 will deliver a lot of business features, but what about enterprise/IT integration?
iOS 6 will deliver a lot of business features, but what about enterprise/IT integration?

It’s been over two years since Apple unveiled iOS 4 with mobile management features designed to make the iPhone and iPad a significantly better corporate citizen. During those years, the landscape of business and enterprise mobility has changed dramatically. RIM has collapsed and will never truly recover, Microsoft has doubled down on the interface it launched late in 2010 with no guarantee of success, and Android has become much more enterprise friendly. Perhaps more important is the fact that idea of mobile management and security has shifted from a focus on devices to a focus on securing data and managing mobile apps.

As all this has happened, Apple’s mobile management framework, which is the system that all mobile management vendors plug into in order to secure and manage iOS devices, has essentially stagnated. With iOS 6 on the horizon, lets look at the areas that Apple needs to address if it wants iOS to remain one of the preferred mobile platforms for business.

How The VA Eliminated Data Breaches On iPhones And Other Mobile Devices

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The VA's mobile security chief offers IT leaders five excellent tips for securing mobile devices.
The VA's mobile security chief offers IT leaders five excellent tips for securing mobile devices.

Like many federal agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs has embarked on the journey of integrating iPhones and iPads as mobile solutions. The agency currently has 20,000 mobile devices that includes iPhones and iPads along with some BlackBerries and a small number of Android devices. Despite the range of devices, the VA has been very active in trying to eliminate mobile data breaches and, according to the VA’s director of Mobile and Security Assurance Donald Kachman, the agency’s campaign has been extremely successful.

Kachman credits encryption technologies with as a major factor in that success – 99% of all VA data is now secured around the clock on mobile devices and desktop PCs. The security approach is one that can be a model for any organization.

Despite the DOJ’s Anti-Trust Case, The U.S. Government Is Happy To Sell Ebooks Via The iBookstore

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The U.S. Government Printing Office now offers reports, documents, and ebooks via Apple's iBookstore.
The U.S. Government Printing Office now offers reports, documents, and ebooks via Apple's iBookstore.

In a somewhat ironic move, the U.S. government has entered into an ebook deal with Apple that will see a range of government reports, documents, and ebooks published in Apple’s iBookstore. The partnership, which was announced earlier this week, coincides with the Department of Justice’s latest legal filings in its anti-trust suit against Apple.

The deal with the Government Printing Office (GPO) will make a wide swath of documents and ebooks available through the iBookstore. While some government documents are available for free, a number of documents and full-length ebooks are not.

Seven Surprisingly Helpful iOS App Development Tips From Federal Agencies

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What lessons can businesses and app developers learn from the federal government?
What lessons can businesses and app developers learn from the federal government?

The U.S. federal government may not be where you’d expect to see mobile innovation or find good app development suggestions. While there’s still a public sector bureaucracy in government, a number of government agencies are beginning to develop new ways to connect with citizens and invest in mobile technologies for internal use.

Granted, most agencies are doing so because of requirements under the Obama administration’s 21st Century Digital Government Strategy. One of which is that every federal agency  must make two high-value, customer-facing services available via mobile devices over the next year.  Still, the innovation is happening and the agencies that have already taken up the challenge are good models for agencies that have yet to do so.

They’re also good sources of advice for any organization that is beginning to develop an iOS or mobile app strategy.

RIM’s BlackBerry Loses The Mobile Security Crown To Apple’s iPhone and iPad

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IT administrators have finally warmed up to the iPhone and now rank it as more secure than the BlackBerry.
IT administrators have finally warmed up to the iPhone and now rank it as more secure than the BlackBerry.

The perception of the BlackBerry as the most secure and manageable mobile platform seems to be faltering. According to a new report, senior IT administrators now consider Apple’s iOS to be the most secure and manageable platform – despite the fact that RIM offers ten times the number of security and device management policies that Apple provides in iOS.

VA And Bon Jovi Launch Mobile App Contest To Help Homeless Vets

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Vet Reach Out is one of the finalists in the Project REACH app contest sponsored by the VA and JBJ Soul Foundation.
Vet Reach Out is one of the finalists in the Project REACH app contest sponsored by the VA and JBJ Soul Foundation.

Department of Veterans Affairs is no stranger iOS devices or to developing custom apps to help deliver key services to veterans and their families. In fact, the VA’s CIO last year said that the agency needed to become “iPad friendly” in order to effectively support the agency’s physicians, nurse, and other medical staff and an iOS pilot program was launched earlier this year.

More recently, the VA has been looking for ways that mobile technology can help homeless veterans find food, shelter, and other critical resources. To achieve that goal and raise awareness of veteran homelessness across the country (one out of six homeless adults in America is a veteran), the VA has teamed up with JBJ Soul Foundation, the non-profit charity created by music legend Jon Bon Jovi to launch an iOS/Android app contest called Project REACH.

USDA Rolls Out Thousands Of iPads, Says Other Tablets Don’t Measure Up

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iPads help USDA service survey farmers and collect agriculture data across the country.
iPads help USDA service survey farmers and collect agriculture data across the country.

The USDA is working its way through an ambitious iPad deployment that may come to serve as a model for a range of government agencies within the U.S. and around the world. The challenge was to develop a simple, intuitive, and effective field survey and data collection system.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is a division of the USDA that is charged with surveying and reporting agricultural data across the country. NASS operates in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico. With a staff of around 3,000 enumerators NASS conducts thousands of survey each year about agriculture across the country. The service has been operating since the mid-1800s and, until the iPad, it conducted surveys and collected data in pretty much the same way that it had back in the 19th century – with paper forms filled out by hand and mailed to various field offices. Although various technology initiatives have been tried by NASS since the 1980s, none was a successful fit before the iPad.

Secretary Of The Navy Wants iPads For Executive Dining At The Pentagon

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The Navy wants iPads in the Pentagon for executive dining room.
The Navy wants iPads in the Pentagon for its Executive dining room.

We’ve seen the iPad used in a range of workplaces. Although some are surprising, like industrial farming and the Vatican, most are a bit more pedestrian. The U.S. Navy is planning to use iPads in a way that is both pedestrian and very high-end.

According to a recent government contract that is up for bid, the Navy plans to include iPads in a revamp of its Executive Dining Facility in the Pentagon. The dining room is often used by the Secretary of the Navy and regularly plays host to high-level Pentagon guests.

Can iPhones Replace BlackBerries In Top Secret Government Agencies?

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If RIM does go belly up, can Apple be ready to meet the security needs of RIM's customers?
If RIM does go belly up, can Apple be ready to meet the security needs of RIM's customers?

It’s getting almost painful to read reports about RIM. The ongoing hype about how great BlackBerry 10 will be mixed with the reports of layoffs, inventory sitting around warehouses, the company’s share price plummeting – it all reminds me of the time one of my high school friends broke her ankle in gym class and hobbled around for nearly half a day trying to convince herself that she’d only sprained it.

Among all that news, however, is a question – can organizations that need incredible security manage in a world without RIM and the manageability made possible by its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)? Is iOS up to that challenge? Is Apple up to or interested in making a major play for the enterprise market?