Hey, Check Out My New iHack
iPhone Hacked
Only windows users need to worry about vulnerabilities and viruses... unless they use an iPhone. A team of consultants from Independent Security Evaluators, a company that tests various computer systems for vulnerabilities, announced that the iPhone can be hacked - big time. Users can, using the right methods or a web page with malicious code, take control of an iPhone and tap all of the data contained on it. They took less than a week to come up with the new way to unlock and commandeer the phone remotely.
Once the hole is exploited you are in complete control of the iPhone. Lynn Fox, a spokeswoman for Apple, was quoted as saying that "Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users.”
I.S.E. submitted its report to Apple Computer and recommended a software patch that could solve the problem. Apple seemed receptive to the feedback. Dr. Miller, a former NSA employee and now Principle Security Analyst for I.S.E. said, “[using the hack] We can get any file we want." He further added that the attack could be used to program the phone to make calls, running up large bills or even turning it into a "portable bugging device". Sweet!
We have to congratulate Apple for inventing a phone that actually seems to be the first one to have a serious (and of course very temporary) security risk to viruses and malicious code. For years it's been suggested that cell phones would be the next big item to be susceptible to these type of malicious computer attacks but until now it has mostly been theoretical.
If anything, the wild popularity and hype associated with the iPhone is what is responsible for making it such a target. After all, Macs aren't more secure than PCs - there simply are (95% or so) less of them, making PCs a much more interesting prospect for crackers.
I.S.E. said that it's goal was to discover vulnerabilities and warn companies so they could bolster their products and provide better protection for consumers. I'd say mission accomplished.
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But what about all these files I have accumulated over the years on a Windows system? Music files, video files, pictures, documents and stuff? How can I migrate them to a Mac environment and still be able to use them?
the files and documents themselves are usually compatible on either OS, you just need the OS specific version of the program to open them, but most everything is covered when you're talking about basic file types...
Word documents... same now on both OS's (much easier than it was 15 years ago!). Music... Same.... video... mostly the same... Just copy your file from your PC to DVDs, CDs, or an external drive, and then hook it up to the mac, copy them over, and open them as always.
I've been using both Windows and Macintosh machines for a few years now. Prefer the Macintosh, but a hospital computer is provided for me, and it has to be a Dell, so I use the Dell a lot. Using files on both machines is no problem.
Years ago I used to be a Mac person. My little Mac plus got me through high school. My Mac clone got me through college. But ever since graduate school I've been using PC's.
Maybe it's time to take a look at a Mac again after I retire my current PC rig
But what about all these files I have accumulated over the years on a Windows system? Music files, video files, pictures, documents and stuff? How can I migrate them to a Mac environment and still be able to use them?
avaserfi;287388
I think the idea of a truly uncrackable system is a joke. Every so often some manufacturer software developer calls something "unbreakable" and that is like a magnet to anyone who has the knowledge and time to break it and they do (look at blu-ray).
Of course something as popular and expected as the iPhone has been hacked soon Apple will release their firmware to fix it and that vulnerability will disappear but another hacker will find a different weak point in the system...this cycle will continue until indefinitely.
Oh yes most certainly. Any system can be cracked. This article sums it up nice. http://weblog.infoworld.com/venezia/archives/011187.html [weblog.infoworld.com]
Of course something as popular and expected as the iPhone has been hacked soon Apple will release their firmware to fix it and that vulnerability will disappear but another hacker will find a different weak point in the system...this cycle will continue until indefinitely.
In any case... the OS X certainly does have vulnerabilities, and you'd have to be crazy to say it doesn't. What it hasn't had yet is a real live virus--and this ain't one of them. This is a proof of concept vulnerability. And there's been plenty of those before, on OS X, on Linux, on UNIX, on Solaris, I could keep going...
