Use An iPhone? Yup, The Government Tracks That

Last week, an Indian hacker crew successfully broke into a secured Indian military government network. The group, the Lords of Dharmaraja, posted documents that infer Apple, Nokia, and Research In Motion gave the Indian government backdoor access to their devices in exchange for mobile phone market rights. Indian government officials say the files are forgeries; however, they fit in perfectly with what we know about mobile phone surveillance in 2012.

Fast Company has reported extensively on smartphone and computer security fears. In the documents, which have been posted on multiple mirrors, India military intelligence refers multiple times to a system known as RINOA SUR. According to ZDNet India's Manan Kakkar, the RINOA portion of the acronym refers to “RIM, Nokia, Apple,” while the SUR portion is unknown. The documents describe a backdoor mobile phone surveillance system in great detail. The documents also infer that network access was granted to the Indian government in exchange for the right to sell to Indian consumers.