Makes sense, to be honest. China, Korea, Russia, and the USA are some of the few countries with the ability to vet phones from local companies. You don't want your military being dependent on foreign companies, especially if those foreign companies may be subjected to infiltration or secret orders.

The USA has been shown to spy on its allies, so if I were the head of a military in a country that produced its own phones, I would ban iPhones in the military too. Most countries don't have this luxury, unfortunately.

We're in dire need of FOSS ecosystem for phones!

Why the quotes? It's closed source = it's a security concern. What I hope is that they do make or contribute to an opensource secure phone project. Would be great if it were a linux phone.

Anti Commercial-AI license

Seems everyone jumped to conclusions about this article.

Yes, iPhones are blocked because they lack security. This is military, so they aren't worried about basic malware. They are worried about government level security issues (Pegasus, etc...). And let's be blunt, on this level, Apple keeps showing that they lack security in the real world situations. Yet the latest of a long list of iPhones being targeted and hacked.

Now, where people seem to be badly jumping to conclusions is that the article points out that "many" devices will be banned, so no, I doubt the latest Samsung Galaxy phone will be allowed. They are most likely going to require people use a Samsung Tactical Edition smartphone. These are designed for military usage and prevent phones from being secretly turned on for recording private conversations by hacks like Pegasus. These phones have been around for a few years now, and have likely been thoroughly tested and approved now.

This isn't some knee-jerk patriotic requirement, but a real understanding of what is and isn't a secure device, combined with the fact that Korea has to deal with a more and more aggressive China. They need real security for real world military.

SEOUL - South Korea’s military is considering a comprehensive ban on iPhones in military buildings due to increasing concerns about possible leaks of sensitive information through voice recordings, according to multiple sources on April 23.

The sources, a group of ranking officers who wished to speak on condition of anonymity, said that the Air Force headquarters released an internal announcement on the military’s intranet server on April 11, instructing a complete prohibition on any device capable of voice recording and which does not permit third-party apps to control inherent functions, effective June 1, with iPhones cited as items subject to the ban.

According to the document, the decision to ban iPhones in the military came from joint meetings held by the headquarters of the army, navy and air force, located at Gyeryongdae in South Chungcheong province.

The document was quoted as stating: “It’s inevitable to block any kind of voice recording, not just formal communications including meetings, office conversations, business announcements and complaints from and consultations with the public, but also informal communications such as private phone calls (within military buildings).”

According to the document, “there has been an ongoing review regarding the potential extension of this ban to all subordinate units”, with the army headquarters having conducted a trial of the ban since April. If the ban is extended, it will likely go beyond the Gyeryongdae area to include all other units across the nation.

The devices set to be prohibited include all types of smartwatches and wearable devices as well.

Currently, about 10,000 personnel, including some 6,000 officers, are estimated to be on duty at the Gyeryongdae defence centre alone. For security reasons, the exact number is not disclosed to the public.

The specific type of security threat they’re talking about is the threat of “our in-house software can’t control iphones”.

I may be misremembering, but under ios I think that goal is accomplished with mdm instead of an app?

Huh. Where do they make the Samsung phones again?

I mean even the President doesn't use an iPhone, he probably still uses one of those General Dynamics bricks.