EXPERTS claim to have built a creepy AirTag clone that can bypass all of Apple’s spying protections.
The controversial device has been under the spotlight for its use to stalk people or track valuable belongings.
2
They’re meant to be helpful, allowing users to find their personal items like keys.
However, there have been several reports of scammers using the small gadget on people’s personal belongings in an effort to track them.
Apple has included a beeping sound that is designed to alert potential victims if they’re being stalked.
But thieves have got around that too by modifying them, causing the speaker to stop working.
In response, Apple recently set out further ways it plans to address the problem, including things like precision finding and a display alert with sound by the end of the year.
But that doesn’t appear to be enough, according to one researcher, who says he’s built an AirTag clone.
Most read in News Tech
“We built an AirTag clone that bypasses all those tracking protection features and confirmed it working in a real-world experiment,” revealed Fabian Braunlein, from Positive Security.
“When reading Apple’s statement I was able to immediately devise quite obvious bypass ideas for every current and upcoming protection measure mentioned in that relatively long list.”
In a blog post, he describes how he built his own stealth AirTag and successfully tracked a volunteer’s iPhone for more than five days without triggering a single tracking notification.
He said Apple must include “non-genuine AirTags into their threat model”, suggesting that the problem lies in Apple’s Find My ecosystem more so than AirTags.
Speaking recently, Apple said: “AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products.
“Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag.”
2
In other news, people are increasingly unable to tell apart fake faces made by AI and real ones, new research suggests.
Websites could crash in a couple of months if owners fail to make major change ahead of Chrome, Edge and Firefox ‘version 100’ update.
Uber has revealed the worst and best cities for passenger ratings.
And the naughtiest ever emoji combinations to be careful of have been revealed.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
