<story><title>MIVD boss: Meet without a smartphone, risk of espionage too great</title><url>https://www.nu.nl/tech/6083317/mivd-baas-vergader-zonder-smartphone-risico-op-spionage-te-groot.html</url><text>Jan Swillens, the head of the Dutch Military and Information Service (MIVD) advises large organizations not to meet with a smartphone or tablet on the table, because the risk of espionage is too great.&lt;p&gt;(original link, in dutch: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nu.nl&amp;#x2F;tech&amp;#x2F;6083317&amp;#x2F;mivd-baas-vergader-zonder-smartphone-risico-op-spionage-te-groot.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nu.nl&amp;#x2F;tech&amp;#x2F;6083317&amp;#x2F;mivd-baas-vergader-zonder-sma...&lt;/a&gt;)</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>tsimionescu</author><text>How are smartphones and tablets different from laptops and regular phones in this regard? Shouldn&amp;#x27;t the advise be to meet without microphones of any kind, if you&amp;#x27;re really that paranoid? And of course, I would expect that online conferences are right out - especially useful advice in the times of Covid19.&lt;p&gt;Unless this is advice for state-level institutions discussing state secrets, this seems like completely useless advice, the kind that gives security people a bad name. It is both too paranoid for regular businesses, and provides too little protection if you truly are being targeted for espionage. Especially in a time where most meetings are happening online.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Pick-A-Hill2019</author><text>The difference is that a smartphone or tablet is an always on device and are also usually personal devices. In addition they are carried round in pockets or bags.&lt;p&gt;Taking over a mobile device remotely and activating the camera and microphone is a real thing (citations available but &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;whatsapp-hack-phone-call-voip-buffer-overflow&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;whatsapp-hack-phone-call-voip-bu...&lt;/a&gt; from 2019 provides a solid &amp;#x27;is possible to do&amp;#x27; example).&lt;p&gt;I have worked in more than a few sites where all cell-phones needed to be placed in to faraday cage lockers located outside the highly secure areas prior to entering but laptops were ok to take in and use (subject to high contrast stickers over cameras, dummy jacks placed in mic sockets and wi-fi switched off).&lt;p&gt;Given that these were a mixture of national infrastructure, military and embassy type sites and was a thing ten+ years ago I think the various governments are well aware of their own abilities and assume that the opposition have equal capabilities.&lt;p&gt;I take your point regarding “Unless this is advice for state-level institutions discussing state secrets” but knowledge leaks and filters down in to the corporate world. Those same C-Suits that have to attend meetings discussing restricted information projects go away thinking – Huh, I wonder if it could be done to us by a competitor.&lt;p&gt;When you consider the difficulties of verifying the supply chain of a random mobile device (from the chipset through to all installed apps) it leaves so many security holes that it is best to assume that anything a nation state can do so can a well skilled hacker (or group).</text></comment>
<story><title>MIVD boss: Meet without a smartphone, risk of espionage too great</title><url>https://www.nu.nl/tech/6083317/mivd-baas-vergader-zonder-smartphone-risico-op-spionage-te-groot.html</url><text>Jan Swillens, the head of the Dutch Military and Information Service (MIVD) advises large organizations not to meet with a smartphone or tablet on the table, because the risk of espionage is too great.&lt;p&gt;(original link, in dutch: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nu.nl&amp;#x2F;tech&amp;#x2F;6083317&amp;#x2F;mivd-baas-vergader-zonder-smartphone-risico-op-spionage-te-groot.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nu.nl&amp;#x2F;tech&amp;#x2F;6083317&amp;#x2F;mivd-baas-vergader-zonder-sma...&lt;/a&gt;)</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>tsimionescu</author><text>How are smartphones and tablets different from laptops and regular phones in this regard? Shouldn&amp;#x27;t the advise be to meet without microphones of any kind, if you&amp;#x27;re really that paranoid? And of course, I would expect that online conferences are right out - especially useful advice in the times of Covid19.&lt;p&gt;Unless this is advice for state-level institutions discussing state secrets, this seems like completely useless advice, the kind that gives security people a bad name. It is both too paranoid for regular businesses, and provides too little protection if you truly are being targeted for espionage. Especially in a time where most meetings are happening online.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pulse7</author><text>&amp;quot;...if you&amp;#x27;re really that paranoid?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, you can not call me a paranoid anymore. Before Snowden you could call me like that. But today, it is not secret anymore...</text></comment>