Bear in mind: a 2008 iPhone bears almost no resemblance to a 2017 iPhone. The platform security architecture of the phone has changed radically in the decade since it was released.
I think the important thing to keep in mind is that we already know the the USG IC interdicts and tampers with computing equipment. That’s not newsworthy. What would be newsworthy would be if their efforts to do so with the iPhone had survived to the modern iPhone platform — which, because reasons, I believe has a design informed by knowledge of what USG is doing.
Relevant:
https://twitter.com/dinodaizovi/status/845028625476976640
Bear in mind: a 2008 iPhone bears almost no resemblance to a 2017 iPhone. The platform security architecture of the phone has changed radically in the decade since it was released.
It’s not just that (old) iPhones can be broken into, but that they made a strong effort to actually do so.
You could probably look at this extreme focus on compromising endpoints as a positive - it means that end-to-end encryption is working.
I think the important thing to keep in mind is that we already know the the USG IC interdicts and tampers with computing equipment. That’s not newsworthy. What would be newsworthy would be if their efforts to do so with the iPhone had survived to the modern iPhone platform — which, because reasons, I believe has a design informed by knowledge of what USG is doing.
It appears you are correct: Apple says recent Wikileaks CIA docs detail old, fixed iPhone and Mac exploits