[LINK] Something Else That the CIA Leaks Disclose

[Roger Clarke]

Okay, CIA internal documents claim they've hacked prettymuch everything worth attacking:
Tech firms scramble for fixes after CIA hacking dump
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/tech-firms-scramble-for-fixes-after-cia-hacking-dump-454024
>The 8761 leaked documents list a wealth of security attacks on Apple and Google Android smartphones carried by billions of consumers, as well as top computer operating systems - Windows, Linux and Apple Mac - and six of the world's main web browsers.

A related issue arises:
>Sinan Eren, vice president of Czech anti-virus software maker Avast, called on mobile software makers Apple and Google to supply security firms with privileged access to their devices to offer immediate fixes to known bugs.
>"We can prevent attacks in real time if we were given the hooks into the mobile operating system," Eren said.

The related issue is this:

1.  From the very beginning of the 'appliance' market, users have been precluded from having mobile general-purpose computing devices - because the capabilities are tightly limited by the provider to suit the needs of the provider not the customer

2.  Software providers for mobile devices are precluded from accessing the full capabilities of the underlying OS - because that would undermine the OS-provider's ability to control the market.

When *are* we going to see an open-source mobile-device OS?

Or will desktop/laptop OS follow mobile OS, with the effect of denying normal people access to general-purpose computing devices?


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 6916                        http://about.me/roger.clarke
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University