Just when you thought it couldn’t get much worse, The//Intercept is reporting that the CIA has been conducting a sustained multi-year effort to exploit Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The idea was to defeat Apple’s efforts to provide their users with unbreakable encryption. They also sought to break into the devices’ firmware so that they could insert malware.
In theory Americans needn’t worry because the CIA is prohibited from operating in the U.S. I’m confident that no American Irreal readers are sanguine about their safety. The CIA, I’m also sure, feels entirely justified in targeting foreigners even if they happen to be, say, the head of state of an ally.
This really is outlaw behavior; behavior that the U.S. government would raise to a major diplomatic issue if they discovered a foreign government were doing it to them. As for the targeting of Americans, it’s hard to see how it’s not illegal unless they have a warrant. That holds even if they pass off American operations to the FBI or NSA.