This is irresponsible reporting. You are purposely mis-leading readers.
As any IT guy can tell you, blackberries get hacked all the time. They are no more secure than a iPhone.
If you were a responsible well informed tech reporter, your story would have included facts, such as two recent hacker symposiums where they held contests for who could hack various smartphone platforms the fastest. All the major platforms were hacked successfully, and the blackberry fell BEFORE the iPhone did... by a considerable margin too.
It's fine to report the story that the iPhone is vulnerable, but don't mislead readers by making it sound like other platforms are more secure. That's a flat out lie. And if you believe it, you are either mis-informed or a lazy journalist.
@sdeetz: The story is about the encryption used and your comments about the symposiums which must break into the phones remotely or gain access through a browser exploit or similar. That is not what this is about.
You’re not comparing apples to apples. This is only about the encryption.
@UnderLoK: Can't comment on that as I know nothing about the hackathon. I should point out that I do think that sdeets up there was a little overly aggressive and perhaps a little extreme, but I do think he's on to something. The article IS a bit one sided, not because it talks badly of the iPhone or well of the BlackBerry but because it discusses both while only supplying research for one.
@Estêvão Tanure Romane: Coordinate adjectives are adjectives with equal ("co"-ordinate) status in describing the noun; neither adjective is subordinate to the other. You can decide if two adjectives in a row are coordinate by asking the following questions:
* Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written in reverse order?
* Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written with and between them?
@My Secret Identity: Unfortunately, "incredibly" and "dangerously" are both adverbs, describing an adjective (otherwise you're essentially correct). Mistakes all around!
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but you have to wonder if RIM or Palm is paying this guy to do this. I know he's done it before but that doesn't mean he can't still profit from it. It's not that far fetched when you consider these security exploits always come out on the devices that are "on top."
The first rule about security is that if you have physical access to the devices. it's just a matter of time. "Man hacks into a computer and gets data off"--that's been going on for decades.
That's like saying "if you have access to someone's PC, you can hack in and get all their files." No DUH! Everything is hackable w/ physical access and time. That's why the whole point of SECURITY is to put walls up and make it harder to access the target (doors, fences, dogs, walls) and reduce the amount of time that the object is not observed (cameras, motion sensors, patrol guards).
This is like the story of that guy who was hacking the Mac every day for 30 days. A good portion of his hacks were him logging in as root and installing vulnerabilities.
@Vroomtrap: It's not a matter of if someone will crack it, it's how long it will take that defines how secure something is. This is why safes are rated by the number of minutes they can withstand various attacks.
So is he saying this only affects the iPhone 3GS's? or am reading this wrong. So then a simple solution will be to buy a iPhone 3G. My question is how is the flaw compare to the other devices? this entire claim smells funny, am pretty sure the device has flaws but so do the rest of them.
Someone steals your iPhone there is a 110% chance who ever took it just wanna make a quick buck, No one gives a sh*t what's in it. All you need is a passcode on it, nothing more, that way who ever buys your phone just wipes it out to remove code.
@snitch: It is the iPhone OS in general. From reading the article you can see that RIM thought about security in all aspects of it's operating system design while for Apple it was just tacked on.
Two questions:
- how robust does Apple claim their security to be?
- are there as many people trying to actively hack the Blackberry?
One of the commenters on the Wired page makes a valid point: if you can gain physical control of the computer/device, you can also gain access to the data on that device. This is true for most things and unless the data is store remotely any amount of security will not prevent an expert taking what they want.
I am not trying to defend Apple, what I am trying to do is to put things to perspective, rather than just having a knee jerk reaction.
@twilight-arc: "how robust does Apple claim their security to be?"
From the Wired article "Apple claims that hundreds of thousands of iPhones are being used by corporations and government agencies."
So it's reasonable to expect robust security if you're boasting about government agencies as your customers.
Then again, like you mention, if you lose the physical control of your device, you're expected to lose its data too.
@Firebrand: Therein comes an assumption. Just because companies and government agencies use it does not mean it is secure. Maybe it is implied, but it did not come off that way to me. Remember not all companies or government agencies care about or understand security.
@twilight-arc: 1. I'm too lazy to look it up but I recall them touting "Enterprise Grade Security".
2. A lot of people are trying to hack BB. The difference is they aren't doing it as an academic exercise, they're doing it as part of corporate espionage and being paid handsomely for it. They tend to keep their mouths shut about their findings.
As for gaining physical access, a good encryption system makes it prohibitively time consuming to break into. Can it be broken, of course, but it might take a couple days, couple weeks, couple months... by the time someone could actually get in, the device should have wiped itself. Encryption doesn't have to keep the hackers out forever, just long enough for the "self destruct sequence" to initiate
lmao, this is awesome. Apple needs to up their game is what this means. You better be damn grateful you have a legion of iPhone enthusiasts cracking your products and SHOWING YOU that its easy to crack, and even going so far as to advise you on plugging the hole. Lucky for you, they're not malicious. Yet.
@TheSonOfKrypton: Perhaps apple isnt trying to be a blackberry. Maybe they dont want to be the phone of the ceo's of important financial institutions. Afterall, there are less of those important business men walking around everyday anyway.
@livinzlife: Apple may not want to be Blackberry, but they want their product to be as good or better than Blackberry. They see themselves as an 'everything' phone and for businessmen, regardless of whether they are the majority user, security is a serious issue.
@livinzlife: Yes, but if you're going to have hardware encryption and use that as a selling point to businesses, it should at least be encryption that does what it's supposed to do.
@livinzlife: Yea, ok. Do you believe that actions follow thoughts? And that thoughts follow beliefs? Therefore, by simple logic, actions ultimately follow beliefs. If you agree with that, then consider this: If Apple wasn't trying to be like more like 'Blackberry' (implying they don't care about the business world), then why would they bother implementing Exchange Support (in 2.0) or such features as Copy & Paste (in 3.0) that facilitate word processing apps (like Documents to Go), LDAP (3.0), OTA Profile (3.0), entire iTunes backup encryption (well, supposedly...3.0), and Exchange ActiveSync client certificate-based authentication and Online Certificate Status Protocol (3.0). They are doing all of this to appeal more to the business world as they have already appealed to the non-business world. Deduction is a beautiful thing.
@TheSonOfKrypton:First of all relax. It will be ok I promise. Now, to argue that the majority of iphone users are business men and women would be a completely invalid argument. Sure, apple would like to extend to everyone just like every other phone out there, but the reality is when you have something as successful as the iphone, your main focus is going to go to pleasing the majority of your users, which is not business users. The iphone will always be able to improve, there will never be a perfect phone (or any gadget ever). Iphones and blackberries are targeted to different consumers and while blackberries want to extend to everyday people and iphones want to extend to business people, there will always be a wall between the two.
@livinzlife: You never want to take a swing at me in the morning. Your chances are better late at night, trust me on this. On to the retort, eh?
"Now, to argue that the majority of iphone users are business men and women would be a completely invalid argument."
Question: Where did I argue that the majority of iPhone users are business men? I'd really like to know that, since I'm not even a 'business' man myself. It seems your entire assertion is based on this (quoted) premise, so I won't even address the rest of it (which, IMO, doesn't even need to be addressed as I agree with it) until you substantiate that statement.
@livinzlife: They actually are trying to get into that realm. I work for a large IT reseller, and we have Apple in here constantly trying to push things like the iPhone for business use. They want to try to replace Blackberries if possible.
@TheSonOfKrypton:Way to take it from a conversation to an argument once again. Thanks for being mature and making blogs a friendly and non-combative place. It is truly appreciated. Deep breath now.
@slinky317:
Sure they would like to offer things that the blackberry offers, but there is just no way apple wants the iphone to be a blackberry. They are entirely different devices. I think what you are trying to say is they would like to try to convince blackberry customers to come their way, which is true and is also why they are offering "blackberry-like" features, but the iphone is not a strictly business phone and it never will be.
10/18/09
10/18/09
10/18/09
07/24/09
As any IT guy can tell you, blackberries get hacked all the time. They are no more secure than a iPhone.
If you were a responsible well informed tech reporter, your story would have included facts, such as two recent hacker symposiums where they held contests for who could hack various smartphone platforms the fastest. All the major platforms were hacked successfully, and the blackberry fell BEFORE the iPhone did... by a considerable margin too.
It's fine to report the story that the iPhone is vulnerable, but don't mislead readers by making it sound like other platforms are more secure. That's a flat out lie. And if you believe it, you are either mis-informed or a lazy journalist.
07/24/09
You’re not comparing apples to apples. This is only about the encryption.
07/25/09
07/26/09
07/26/09
07/24/09
Please, no comma between Incredibly and Dangerously...
07/24/09
* Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written in reverse order?
* Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written with and between them?
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/23/09
That's like saying "if you have access to someone's PC, you can hack in and get all their files." No DUH! Everything is hackable w/ physical access and time. That's why the whole point of SECURITY is to put walls up and make it harder to access the target (doors, fences, dogs, walls) and reduce the amount of time that the object is not observed (cameras, motion sensors, patrol guards).
This is like the story of that guy who was hacking the Mac every day for 30 days. A good portion of his hacks were him logging in as root and installing vulnerabilities.
Call me when he can do this remotely.
07/24/09
07/23/09
Someone steals your iPhone there is a 110% chance who ever took it just wanna make a quick buck, No one gives a sh*t what's in it. All you need is a passcode on it, nothing more, that way who ever buys your phone just wipes it out to remove code.
07/23/09
07/23/09
- how robust does Apple claim their security to be?
- are there as many people trying to actively hack the Blackberry?
One of the commenters on the Wired page makes a valid point: if you can gain physical control of the computer/device, you can also gain access to the data on that device. This is true for most things and unless the data is store remotely any amount of security will not prevent an expert taking what they want.
I am not trying to defend Apple, what I am trying to do is to put things to perspective, rather than just having a knee jerk reaction.
07/23/09
07/23/09
From the Wired article "Apple claims that hundreds of thousands of iPhones are being used by corporations and government agencies."
So it's reasonable to expect robust security if you're boasting about government agencies as your customers.
Then again, like you mention, if you lose the physical control of your device, you're expected to lose its data too.
07/23/09
07/24/09
2. A lot of people are trying to hack BB. The difference is they aren't doing it as an academic exercise, they're doing it as part of corporate espionage and being paid handsomely for it. They tend to keep their mouths shut about their findings.
As for gaining physical access, a good encryption system makes it prohibitively time consuming to break into. Can it be broken, of course, but it might take a couple days, couple weeks, couple months... by the time someone could actually get in, the device should have wiped itself. Encryption doesn't have to keep the hackers out forever, just long enough for the "self destruct sequence" to initiate
07/23/09
Even though I don't email my dealers on my iPhone, and I do that on my computer, this still makes me nervous.
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
"Now, to argue that the majority of iphone users are business men and women would be a completely invalid argument."
Question: Where did I argue that the majority of iPhone users are business men? I'd really like to know that, since I'm not even a 'business' man myself. It seems your entire assertion is based on this (quoted) premise, so I won't even address the rest of it (which, IMO, doesn't even need to be addressed as I agree with it) until you substantiate that statement.
07/24/09
07/25/09
07/25/09
Sure they would like to offer things that the blackberry offers, but there is just no way apple wants the iphone to be a blackberry. They are entirely different devices. I think what you are trying to say is they would like to try to convince blackberry customers to come their way, which is true and is also why they are offering "blackberry-like" features, but the iphone is not a strictly business phone and it never will be.