Technology

Edward Snowden has rubbished claims made by the FBI that it needs Apple to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters.  Snowden says that the FBI is talking “horse sh*t” in claiming that it is technically unable to unlock the phone without Apple’s assistance, and claims the lawsuit is fraudulent. RT.com reports: Over a video link appearance at Blueprint for a Great Democracy conference on Tuesday, Snowden took Apple’s side.

The Chinese government is developing Orwellian surveillance technology to predict crimes or terrorist attacks before they take place by tapping into the thoughts of its citizens. The Big Brother technology is known as ‘Predictive policing’ and was actually born in the United States, but China is poised to emerge as a leader in the field.

Indicating that the FBI has the means itself, Edward Snowden dismissed claims that only Apple could unlock the San Bernardino shooters iPhone. Speaking via video link from Moscow to the Common Cause Blueprint for a Great Democracy conference, the NSA whistle blower said: “The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’ to unlock the phone. Respectfully, that’s bullshit.” The Guardian reports: Snowden then went on to tweet his support for an American Civil Liberties Union report saying that the FBI’s claims in the case are fraudulent.

The first ever ransomware attack on an Apple computer has been uncovered. Huffington Post Canada reports: Security firm Palo Alto Networks reported Sunday that a form of ransomware had infected Transmission, a BitTorrent installer that works on the Apple operating system. This marked the first time that ransomware had successfully attacked Apple’s Mac computers, Palo Alto’s threat intelligence director Ryan Olson told Reuters. Ransomware is a cyber threat that infects a system, encrypts its data and asks people to pay ransoms in order to retrieve it, Reuters reported.