Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Bypassing AirTag Security

Bruce Schneier:

A Berlin-based company has developed an AirTag clone that bypasses Apple’s anti-stalker security systems. Source code for these AirTag clones is available online.

So now we have several problems with the system. Apple’s anti-stalker security only works with iPhones. (Apple wrote an Android app that can detect AirTags, but how many people are going to download it?) And now non-AirTags can piggyback on Apple’s system without triggering the alarms.

Bruce Schneier:

A German activist is trying to track down a secret government intelligence agency. One of her research techniques is to mail Apple AirTags to see where they actually end up[…]

[…]

In a similar story, someone used an AirTag to track her furniture as a moving company lied about its whereabouts.

Previously:

4 Comments RSS · Twitter

I've tried the android app, and while it will detect nearby Air Tags, it requires me to manually scan for them.

No background alerts. No help with finding where the tags are either. And the app is slooow.

Best course of action for Apple is to drop this like they dropped the no button iPod shuffle.

I’ve noticed over the past 30 years that Apple eventually ruins everything great that it creates. Especially in the post-Jobs era, though Steve wasn’t immune to it himself from time to time.

Keynote is still amazing. Latest MBP is top-notch ... and really good too.

Sure, but lots of their software has gotten worse over time, more buggy, features removed, fewer options, etc. Mac OS has certainly gotten noticeably worse post-Jobs. And MBP was terrible for 5 years until recently.

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