To protect and infect

The question is UPS or Fedex allowing the shipments to be intercepted. If so, f*ck them. However they might be bribing drivers to get the packages. Or they have insiders at the shipping facilities.

While you say nothing surprising, did you really think they would use the old microwave CW powered bug trick in the 21st century? Seriously, it is so easy to detect the CW source.

I got a chuckle out of GCHQ forgetting to reprogram the Stingray. Then again, maybe Uganda telecom is trying to get into the London cellular market.

the ios device must be jailbroken *and* custom software installed, which requires physical access to the device. it can't 'just happen'.

it's also nothing new. if you install custom software on a device, it can do whatever you want.

There was no indication the phone had to be jailbroken.

it *must* be jailbroken for custom software to be installed.

all code is codesigned and sandboxed. if it's not, then it won't run. period.

that's the whole point of jailbreaking, to run unsigned code.

Again, you are making assumptions. This is the NSA. Apple has the ability to remove apps remotely, so we know the iphone has a backdoor. It is quite likely the NSA has a zero day exploit for the iphone.

Remember, this is Apple we are talking about. This is a company that released a lock screen with three exploits. Well technically only two. When they fixed one, they created a new one. Gross incompetence.

Nobody would accuse Apple of having good programmers. Great marketing, yes. Engineering...not so good. If the iphone was any good, Good Technology wouldn't exist as a company, right?