US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Peter Presland]

I can see other states following suit.

Which might be a warning g sign to Apple to modify it's software if it wants to retain it's pre eminency.

It's not just the software though David. Much of the spooks ability to crack encryption has been surreptitiously engineered into the hardware itself for well over a decade now - especially the CPU's and related chips produced by the major manufacturers. The big chip manufacturers - and we are talking seriously big corporations - would never have become seriously big chip manufacturers without providing the ability to remotely access and change critical registers. That ability - to help iron-out bugs in existing hardware naturally - has been part and parcel of of the main OS CPU's since the late nineties at least - God knows what levels of sophistication it has evolved too since.

But I agree, the days of States who wish to have their comms remain at least opaque to NSA/GCHQ spying, continuing to rely on devices containing either hardware or software supplied by US controlled corporations are numbered.

All of that has been laid bare by the Snowden affair. The Spooks do not like it one bit and neither do their pet corporations which, without a shadow of doubt, include both Apple and Microsoft + Intel and AMD.