Printer Friendly - Catholic Online

Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

iPhone, iPad security system could be its undoing

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
July 28th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Apple has a lofty position in the world of computer devices, successful in getting its iPhones and iPads into the hands of high-ranking government officials, such as the U.S. White House and Pentagon. Updating its iOS mobile operating system with the industry's most stringent security features, this could mean the devices' strongest point - or their undoing. Quite simply, with the same security device protecting countless apps, all the applications stand to be all hacked at the same time.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - adding fuel to this fire is the fact that many app developers no longer put their own safeguards in place. Instead, they rely almost exclusively on Apple to ensure the security of their applications.

Put simply and concisely, a single vulnerability could have a domino effect.

"Security is now an afterthought for many app developers," Jonathan Zdziarski, senior forensic scientist at viaForensics says. In a presentation at the Black Hat cyber security conference in Las Vegas on this week, Zdziarski said "That means if you hack one, you can hack them all."

Apple has since declined to comment. The computer standard-bearer made its first official appearance at Black Hat with a session on iOS's security features. The dry presentation was little more than a public reading of a white paper Apple recently released. Presenter Dallas De Atley, Apple's platform security team manager, failed to field questions afterwards and quickly escaped out a side door.

Zdziarski simultaneously delivered his workshop on "The Dark Art of iOS Application Hacking." His projections on computer security were indeed frightening, but lacked credibility.

"To hack all the apps on your phone, a hacker would need to: 1) steal your iPhone, which isn't so hard, and 2) discover and exploit iOS vulnerability before Apple does. That's proven to be very hard. It has happened before -- most notably when serial Apple hacker Charlie Miller found a way to sneak a rogue app into Apple's fiercely guarded iTunes store," CNNMoney columnist David Goldman wrote.

"Zero day exploits" on iOS have been extremely rare. "This isn't Chicken Little and the sky is falling," Zdziarski told CNNMoney. "But the message is if you don't add your own security to your app, you're highly susceptible."

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.