jony0

AppleInsider said:

Apple's resistance to government overtures to compel its assistance in federal court has sparked a wider debate on how best to balance personal privacy with national security.

NO ! it's not a debate between personal privacy [vs] national security !

I take great exception to the government’s assessment and hence the media’s parroting of calling this the debate between national security and personal privacy. While obviously true, it is incomplete and dangerously misleading to the uninformed masses, as we have painfully witnessed here many times over with all the new 1 commenters.

I have described it in emails as the battle between national security (provided by law enforcement) and individual security (against cyber criminals) as well as their users’ personal privacy. The omission just opens the (back)door for the government to disingenuously disparage Apple as being only overly concerned about the privacy of its customers above the nation’s security towards terrorism and emboldened them to demonize a fine upstanding corporation by portraying their actions as a callous act of marketing. Nasty at best, but clearly despicable behaviour from the FBI.

happilyretired said:

Oh, the good old days! When all "Things (Apple) just worked", which, I'm afraid, has become a "Thing" of the past.

Ah yes, the good old days, when there were also less murders, rapes, pedophiles, wars, and all sorts of troubles in the world. Why are alt of these on the increase ? Is there any common link with all of these ?
Well yes, yes there is. Communications, the internet mostly as well as other other traditional media, everything has more media coverage simply because there's more media and whether it's really worth reporting or not. Actually, 'more reporting' has been my boiler plate answer for these 'age old' questions for decades. Where and how would you have learned about bugs or other issues back in the good old days of only 3 TV channels and 2 newspapers, the very next day of a release ?

ceek74 said:

The US Gov't currently hates Apple.  I wouldn't be surprised if Apple ends up owing Samsung for "creating a design which would knowingly be copied".

Cute, the Cote doctrine that holds companies Apple responsible for any evil deeds people would do with their products.

Amazingly impressive performance with an unexpectedly sudden efficiency of the US courts of late. In less than a month, they’ve managed to finally resolve 3 ongoing cases that lingered for 5 years in the court system. Well, the last one not yet decided … officially … but we all know the outcome. I only wonder if they held this one back until the eve of the encryption hearings or moved it forward just for good measure. Sarcasm essay alert ahead, for amusement purposes only, no wagering :

Comey : Any Apple court cases in the system ?
  DoJ : Yes sir, Samsung is appealing a decision that awarded Apple 120 M$ and dismissed Samsung’s claims.
Comey : Well then just reverse that, dismiss Apple’s claim and reenable Samsung’s. Anything else ?
  DoJ : Well there’s the ebooks appeal at SCOTUS.
Comey : Tell them to drop it, SCOTUS shouldn’t waste time on business issues, anyway there’s a judge missing. Next ?
  DoJ : There’s another appeal at SCOTUS that …
Comey : Drop it too of course.
  DoJ : But that one is also from the same copycat appealing a decision awarding Apple over 4 times the other amount.
Comey : Oh, then SCOTUS should take that case of course.
  DoJ : But it’s also about business.
Comey : If you want us to still push this encryption thing, you know what to do and so should SCOTUS.

brakken said:

The only reason AI would ever mention IDC or SA is ridicule, yet I detected none. Where is Dilger??

Oh no, IDC predicting Apple will have the lead in 4 years ? This could be the kiss of death !
After all their 4 year prediction of the smartphone market back in 2011 gave Windows a slight lead overtaking iOS by 2015 : 
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/revisiting-gartner-and-idc-2011-predictions-that-windows-phone-would-pass-i?utm_campaign=tmo_story_sidebar
Dooooomed !

Seriously, I also detected none but I believe your original assessment is quite correct, it's just for laughs.
I sense they may have published this for future claim chowder … as they probably assume that we all know these clowns can't even predict the next quarter, let alone 4 years.

volcan said:

thewhitefalcon said:

Congrats on reading the article. The apps in question were on the App Store. 

The original Palo Alto article linked in the AI article has a much better explanation of how it works and why. I'll try to summarize.

1) Any Windows PC user follows a link to the website of the malware author.
2) They are encouraged to download a Windows helper app (malware) which claims to assist in managing iOS devices
3) Once installed on computer, the user is instructed to download an iOS app through a fake iTunes feature within the Windows app
4) The user is prompted for their Apple ID log in which is then stolen. This is the primary purpose of the malware
5) Windows then automatically installs the iOS malware app to any iOS device connected to the computer, without user action.
6) The iOS malware does have an icon which the user might notice as something they did not install, but...
7) Once the malware is installed on the iOS device users can download pirated games from a third party App Store.
8) Currently it only works in China but that could be changed to any region very easily. It works best if it is restricted to only one region at a time

Thanks for the great summary volcan. So, what do we have here folks ?
Any Windows PC user [is] encouraged to download a Windows helper app (malware) which [will] download an iOS app through a fake iTunes feature within the Windows app. The user is prompted for their Apple ID log in which is then stolen. This is the primary purpose of the malware.
As already pointed out by baconstang, it is indeed a Windows malware specifically designed to steal Apple ID logins in China. Yes yes, China for now, got it.

As most attacks towards OS X or iOS, they still have to use another platforms's weaknesses to get through, whether it's Flash, Java, Windows etc.
And ultimately it installs an iOS malware app connected to the computer so that the pirate user can go ahead and steal games. Is there no honour amongst thieves ?
Stick with Apple devices to connect to the Apple App Store and you'll always be protected … until the Feds break it. Got it. Are the Feds working for the Chinese ?

That being said, Apple still has to fix this man in the middle weakness over there, because no one will remember that it's Windows malware, except the pirates.