Apple Ignores Real Threat to iPhone Security, Makes Up Fake One
Charlie Miller (the man who hacked the MacBook Air in two minutes) and his partner-in-crime, Collin Mulliner, plan to unveil an exploit at this Thursday's Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. Apparently, it would let a hacker take complete control of the iPhone with nothing more than a simple text message. By taking advantage of a flaw in how the handset handles text messages, Miller and Mulliner are able to dial the phone, visit Web sites, turn on the phone's camera and microphone, and, most importantly, send text messages that can hijack other phones. Miller told Forbes, "The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone." This isn't the only iPhone flaw the pair plan to disclose at the conference. Another hole in the SMS system (which also effects Android handsets) can knock the phone off a cellular network for about 10 seconds.
Miller and Mulliner told the respective companies about the exploits over a month ago, and while Google was quick to patch the hole, Apple has yet to fortify the vulnerability. "I've given them more time to patch this than I've ever given a company to patch a bug," Miller explained to Forbes.
Of course, how would Apple have time to patch this very real threat to the security of its popular smartphone when it's wasting time making up phony dangers posed by "jailbreakers"? According to comments filed by the company with the Copyright Office this week, jailbroken iPhones could potentially crash cell phone towers, be used by terrorists and drug dealers to make anonymous calls, and conjure up the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The comments (Warning: PDF) were filed in response to a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to legalize the jailbreaking of iPhones to allow consumers to run non-Apple-approved software -- which is now a necessity for all those Google Voice fans with iPhones.
For some of us, Apple's move to the dark side is not really surprising (or really much of a "move"). The company has long enjoyed running a completely closed system that requires you to use its computers with its operating systems, its media players with its software package, and follow its seemingly arbitrary rules governing the use of its smartphone.
While the rest of the world has been freaking out and forcing Microsoft to launch a "browser ballot" when installing Windows (instead of loading Internet Explorer by default), Apple has been quietly embracing its more draconian impulses and making more and more enemies along the way. [From: Forbes and Wired]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Holly said 3:05PM on 7-30-2009
So does this mean I shouldn't get the iPhone?
Reply
Alec said 1:39PM on 7-30-2009
Bingo.