China Reportedly Used iPhone Exploits to Target Uyghur Muslims

[MacRumors]

Last week we reported on Google's discovery of an old iPhone vulnerability - now fixed by Apple - that enabled malicious websites to steal data from thousands of users over a two-year period.

Google described these attacks in its original blog post as "indiscriminate," however a report over the weekend by TechCrunch suggests the websites were part of a state-backed attack that specifically targeted Uyghur Muslims.

The websites were part of a campaign to target the religious group by infecting an iPhone with malicious code simply by visiting a booby-trapped web page. In gaining unfettered access to the iPhone's software, an attacker could read a victim's messages, passwords, and track their location in near-real time.

According to TechCrunch's sources, the Chinese government was allegedly behind the malicious websites, which also infected non-Uygurs who unintentionally accessed these domains because they were indexed in Google search. The FBI is said to have alerted Google to ask for the sites to be removed from its index to prevent infections.

Beijing has long sought to suppress the ethnic minority Uyghur community in the country's Xinjiang state, with brutal crackdowns in the 1980s and 90s leading to significant numbers of Uyghurs fleeing China to seek asylum.

In the past year, at least one million Uighurs have been detained in internment camps, according to the United Nations human rights committee. Beijing claims the centers across Xinjiang are for "vocational training," but a US Congressional hearing on the camps characterized them as "political re-education" centers.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: China Reportedly Used iPhone Exploits to Target Uyghur Muslims

 

[itsmemuffins]

I don’t believe this. The Chinese? Unpossible!

They also force malware on tourists phones at Xinjiang border.

https://www.cnet.com/news/china-is-reportedly-scanning-tourists-phones-with-malware/

https://www.slashgear.com/china-forces-malware-on-tourist-phones-at-border-heres-what-they-want-
02582568/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...d-to-install-a-text-stealing-piece-of-malware

 

[Pepe4life]

China is also collecting DNA samples from all the muslims in that region to be used for future organ harvesting purposes.

 

[rizzo41999]

God, that government is just a force of pure evil.

Tiananmen Square 1989

 

[FFR]

The also used android and windows, no idea why everyone only focuses on apple.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...ndroid-and-microsoft-windows-say-sources/amp/

 

[Agit21]

So there is zero reason for using an iPhone. Might as well just buy a Xiaomi device next time with all those iOS loopholes.

 

[retta283]

The other Great Powers of the world missed so many chances to destroy/weaken the Communists in China, and this is the result. A great power that is completely tyrannical and oppressive on a scale not seen since the Stalinist era.

 

[itsmilo]

China is what the Stasi in East Germany would have liked to be. The whole country is sick. Just like Nazi Germany, the world just watches until they play with too much fire

 

[Bin Cook]

Someone tell me how the Uighur Muslims can have a longer claim on the territory of the Chinese than the Chinese (in fact substitute the Uigher Muslim for any other people having a longer claim on China than the Chinese)?

Not possible.

 

[one more]

Last week we reported on Google's discovery of an old iPhone vulnerability – now fixed by Apple – that enabled malicious websites to steal data from thousands of users over a two-year period.

Has anybody seen the actual list of those “malicious websites”?

 

[neuropsychguy]

So there is zero reason for using an iPhone. Might as well just buy a Xiaomi device next time with all those iOS loopholes.

My car might be stolen so I might as well leave the doors open, keep the keys in it, and keep it running. Let me take off or destroy all VINs too and remove the license plate.

 

[69Mustang]

So there is zero reason for using an iPhone. Might as well just buy a Xiaomi device next time with all those iOS loopholes.

Well, there is one reason. Probably the only one that matters. Because they want to use one.
This is coming from someone who doesn't use an iPhone. Probably never will, but that doesn't mean your statement is any less silly. Every OS is vulnerable. It's an arms race of one-upsmanship that is perpetual.

 

[ScottishDuck]

Luckily I’m sure the US government did nothing at all with this exploit, and harmed no-one.

 

[1050792]

China bad, USA good. Am I right?

 

[Precursor]

Someone tell me how the Uighur Muslims can have a longer claim on the territory of the Chinese than the Chinese (in fact substitute the Uigher Muslim for any other people having a longer claim on China than the Chinese)?

Not possible.

Claim in China? What are you talking about?
Uighurs have been living in that region for thousands of years, not the whole country. Who said Uighurs claim anything? They’re being targeted because 1) They’re not Han Chinese 2) They’re not Chinese

 

[unobtainium]

Someone tell me how the Uighur Muslims can have a longer claim on the territory of the Chinese than the Chinese (in fact substitute the Uigher Muslim for any other people having a longer claim on China than the Chinese)?

Not possible.

lol what. The Han Chinese are from a different area of Eurasia. They never lived in Uighur territory until very recent times. In fact they hardly live there now. They just control it politically, and are starting to move Han Chinese there to try to change the demographics.

 

[LovingTeddy]

lol what. The Han Chinese are from a different area of Eurasia. They never lived in Uighur territory until very recent times. In fact they hardly live there now. They just control it politically, and are starting to move Han Chinese there to try to change the demographics.

China has control over Xinjiang was long before PRC. Ever since Tang Dynasty, China has political and military control over Xinjiang Region. Ever since, Xinjiang was on and off from China’s control. Then Qing Dynasty formerly controlled Xinjiang Province.

The Qing government has already began to relocate Han, Hui, Manchu ethics to Xinjing.

Since ROC took over from Qing, it has claim over all Qing’s territory. And since PRC took over from ROC, it has legitimate control over ROC territory.

China is not going to given up Xinjiang. Over past few decades, there were several terrorist attacks inside Xinjiang. Chinese government is more hardcore on terrorists, it simply assume all Uyghur Muslim were terrorist.

 

[haruhiko]

“China, bad bad bad”

Sums up well.
Very good sensational headline. MacRumors love it.

 

[PickUrPoison]

State-sponsored computer warfare is extremely difficult to combat. Often it’s turned inward on a country’s own citizens, but obviously it’s utilized on the global geopolitical battlefield as well.

Prediction: the Chinese are going to unleash a cyberwar against Trump that’s going to make Russia’s 2016 campaign against Clinton look like amateur hour.

Foreign countries will continue to choose the US President for us until we can figure out how to stop them.

 

[JosephAW]

I'm sure it's not just Muslims they are targeting but all non-state approved gatherings. Christians have been under a lot of persecution recently with churches being demolished and pastors jailed.

This most likely has been used against all citizens as well affecting the new Social Credit System score. With the crack down on freedoms in Hong Kong they will eventually suppress all citizens.

Very dark future ahead for China and for the world and eventually this system will spread to the west. The SPLC would love to implement a social score system in the west against those they want to silence from speaking truth.

 

[zombierunner]

Apple should pull out of China completely. Paying 1100 anyway for a phone. What’s another 100.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Apple should pull out of China completely. Paying 1100 anyway for a phone. What’s another 100.

I’d gladly pay another 100 knowing it was not made in China.

The only good communist is a

 

[EugW]

I wonder what proportion of these posts were typed on a Chinese made Apple product.

 

[MarkB786]

Well, there is one reason. Probably the only one that matters. Because they want to use one.
This is coming from someone who doesn't use an iPhone. Probably never will, but that doesn't mean your statement is any less silly. Every OS is vulnerable. It's an arms race of one-upsmanship that is perpetual.

Not quite silly. Some folks use(d) Apple because it used to be a brand people TRUSTED. Perhaps that trust was misplaced, but it used to be a big marketing point for Apple. No longer.

 

[NufSaid]

Nothing gets a free pass like China’s concentration camps that are going unreported.