At the beginning of the year, it was against TikTok that the administrations rebelled. It is now prohibited for US or European officials to have the Chinese app on their professional devices. Russia is taking the same path, but it is not targeting TikTok, but Apple products.
Since Monday, July 17, the Russian authorities have asked the country’s officials to abandon their iPhones, iPads and other devices from the US company. This request is part of a fight by Russia against the manufacturer, specifies the financial times.
The Kremlin, as well as Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) spy agency, believe there is an increase in spying activities by US intelligence agencies. Therefore, the country wants to avoid the presence of Apple devices inside Russian institutions or even key ministries.
Apple denies espionage
For now, personal use of an Apple product is still authorized, but it does cause inconvenience. “Everyone complains that it is not practical and that you have to carry another phone or another tablet,” criticizes a close friend of a ministry with the economic newspaper.
This approach is also in line with Russia’s desire to migrate its institutions to clean technologies, to free itself from foreign solutions.
Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree calling for “critical information infrastructures” to use home software by 2025.
According to the FSB, several thousand iPhones, equipped with Russian SIM cards or registered with Russian diplomatic missions in NATO countries, have been infected by surveillance software. On the Russian side, this would indicate collaboration between Apple and the US National Security Agency (NSA).
For its part, Apple has denied these accusations saying that it has “never worked with any government to implement access within an Apple product.” The company also assures that it “never will”.
Source: BFM TV
