[HN Gopher] Unplugged Phone Mysteries
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Unplugged Phone Mysteries
Author : hampelm
Score : 45 points
Date : 2022-07-28 13:58 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pxlnv.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pxlnv.com)
| md_ wrote:
| The Erik Prince? Mercenary and alleged-murderer Erik Prince?
| https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/blackwater-founder...
|
| Now selling a low-end "secure" smartphone?
|
| Weird change of business, right?
| Veserv wrote:
| That is a hilarious security report.
|
| 1. They are selling a "secure" phone, but it only reviews their
| mobile apps.
|
| 2. They are testing their mobile apps according to the Open Web
| Application Security Project (OWASP) TOP 10. They are mobile
| apps, not web apps.
|
| 3. OWASP TOP 10 is advertised by OWASP as the "first step towards
| changing the software development culture within your
| organization into one that produces more secure code".
| Conformance does not mean security, it means the first step
| toward security.
|
| It is like applying to a professorship in physics and your entire
| resume is that you once got a gold star on a elementary school
| arithmetic exam.
| RajT88 wrote:
| I have met CSO's who are similarly confused about what OWASP
| Top 10 actually means.
| carvking wrote:
| Worth a listen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwK_XLFOm_I
|
| I was captivated - went through it in one setting. The more
| recent stuff is nearer the end of the podcast. (2:20 or so)
| netsharc wrote:
| Is it just me, or has the commercial world gone weirder? Claim a
| product that does magic shit ("patriot communication!"), claim
| support from some famous person, although they can quickly deny
| it, and you'll probably get some suckers to pay you for the
| product. Or even better, investors to buy into your company.
|
| Somehow the words "self-driving cars" popped into my head. Ah,
| the wonders of faith-based investing. On the keyword of "faith",
| maybe I should start selling investments to help build a palace
| for Jesus that he will return to, to rule the Earth ("Endorsed by
| 2 Popes, promise!", or I can just pay some evangelical preachers
| to get their mouths to actually endorse it), and if you invest,
| you can have an audience with Jesus!
| RL_Quine wrote:
| I think a lot of it stems from the realisation that you don't
| ever need to actually make a product, you just need to sell the
| feeling of it and that's sufficient. What's being sold here is
| almost certainly just shovelware on a cheap chinese phone, but
| the presentation of it is designed to make you feel like it is
| a whole lot more than that.
| pathartl wrote:
| While "weird" it's certainly not surprising. Consumer
| protections have not kept up with the overall global economy.
| Snake oil products have always existed, but it's getting easier
| to spin up a new company that targets an uneducated consumer.
| carvking wrote:
| " Oh, and Erik Prince is just the worst. " -
|
| Well he did go into Iraq because the government of the USA
| decided it.
| kop316 wrote:
| > One thing this phone has going for it is that it is, at its
| core, an Android phone. There is a chance the device itself may
| not be unusable after just a few years even if the company
| disappears. That is not the case for a comparable product like
| the Purism Librem 5.
|
| PostmarketOS supports the Librem 5:
| https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices and other Linux
| Distros have support for the Librem 5. Given how often random
| Android devices show up and never get supported after they are
| first released, I would argue the exact opposite. This phone will
| likely be unsupported after a few years even if the company stays
| around, whereas the Librem 5 will be supported even if the
| company goes under.
| nickheer wrote:
| Thanks! I will correct this.
| LegitShady wrote:
| I always assume whoever is selling the super secure phone is
| listening in on the super secure communications.
| RL_Quine wrote:
| The hyped "Unplugged messenger" is just element/matrix with the
| branding stripped off it. https://web.unplugged.com/#/login
|
| What a weird set of stuff, it smells really, really bad.
| d4a wrote:
| With JS disabled, I get a "Sorry, Element requires JavaScript
| to be enabled."
| _jal wrote:
| The phone itself appears to be a rebrand of the "Liberty Phone"
| from the last time around:
|
| https://www.ghost.libertyblockchain.com
|
| If you start the pre-order process, you'll start seeing links
| to unplugged-systems.com.
|
| Interestingly, the "Liberty" branded site prominently claims
| "not made in China". I don't see a similar claim for the
| "Unplugged" branded version.
| miloignis wrote:
| No kidding, opening the dev console shows this as part of a
| funnily mangled (by sed, I imagine) warning message
|
| > If you know what you're doing, Element is open-source, be
| sure to check out our GitHub (https://github.com/vector-
| im/Unplugged Messenger-web/) and contribute!
| nonrandomstring wrote:
| How many of these "private" phones turned out to be a sting
| operation by the likes of the FBI? Can I look at the code and
| schematic? No? Take it away. Come back when you have a product
| based entirely on auditable open source hardware and software,
| whose operation satisfies the Kerckhoff-Shannon principle that
| the only secret is my private key.
| mod wrote:
| What are you using instead?
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(page generated 2022-07-28 17:00 UTC)