Latest Apple posts

H4cked Off: I hate to say I told you so...

07 Jul 2011

Last month, I quoted security firm Kasperky's CTO Nikolay Grebennikov as he explained why he feels that Apple can't keep its iOS platform secure all by itself.

It's a fairly bold statement, but he went further, stating that Apple would be forced to open up the iOS within a year.

Apple keeps a firm grip on its mobile operating system, only allowing applications and services to be downloaded from its own store. And it, presumably painstakingly, vets these apps and their developers first, ensuring that they're free of malware and other nasties.

Android, a far more open platform, has no such restrictions.

Both operating systems are doing well, although Android is the faster growing, perhaps partly because it's easier for developers to get involved.

Having said that, Android has the worse security record, with DroidDream and other malware bursting out from seemingly innocuous apps once in a while.

Hell hath no fury like an Apple customer spurned. My article was quickly swamped with outraged comments from Apple devotees.

"Currently, iOS is completely immune from viruses and malware," shrieked one.

Another addressed Grebennikov directly with some career advice: "Dude, go get a new job, your business model is going bye-bye!"

Leaving aside the disconcerting and cultish fervour with which some Apple customers exalt the company, their unshakable belief that the platform is safe could be their undoing.

McAfee put it well in its 2011 Threat Predictions report:

"The popularity of iPads and iPhones in business environments and the easy portability of malicious code between them could put many users and businesses at risk. The lack of user understanding regarding exposure on these platforms and the lack of deployed security solutions make a fertile landscape for cyber criminals."

I realise I'm quoting security companies with something to gain from identifying a need for additional security in the iOS, but that doesn't mean the need isn't there.

This week, elite hacker Comex released a jailbreak service for the latest iOS version. In so doing, he revealed a zero-day flaw in the platform, managing to skirt around its security counter-measures. That flaw is now in the public domain. By the time you read this, malware will be out there in the ecosystem, exploiting this vulnerability.

And as a closed system, there's little iOS users can do to protect themselves until Apple releases a patch. Actually that's not true. You can jailbreak your device using Comex's service, then download his own patch which fixes the problem. Irony?

OK. So I lied. In fact I love to say I told you so.

Anything can be hacked, it just has to be worth the effort. Apple products are no exception. And I say this as an Apple user myself, just one who has yet to be initiated into the cult.

Stuart Sumner, chief reporter and security geek

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Are Macs female?

30 Nov 2010

Are Macs female is a question I've been pondering since Apple let us have one of their latest MacBook Airs.

Anybody that's had their ears be-bothered by Charles Aznavour's paean to female pulchritude 'She' (co-written with lyricist Herbert Kretzmer) may think there's some lines in there that could have been written specifically for Macs.

Specifically, "She may be the face I can't forget, a trace of pleasure or regret, maybe my treasure or the price I have to pay."

Well the price you'd have to pay for the model I looked at is £1,349 (inc. VAT). If you're thinking of getting one, get your skates on, because as from the 4th of January, Boy George (Osborne) will be lifting VAT to 20 per cent.

I suppose I'm primarily a Windows user, but it was interesting to live with the MacBook Air for a couple of weeks. The battery life seemed to be a cut above most Windows laptops, and being able to close the lid and open it up two days later and have MacBook's Snow Leopard OS ready to roll in under five seconds is very convenient.

Nothing broke while we were reviewing the MacBook Air, things just worked.

But unfortunately there weren't many ports on there, so owners would end up shelling out for a lot of USB adaptors for any specific connections they'd need. Like for example a wired LAN adaptor (£25), or screen connection to VGA, DVI or HDMI. There's no optical drive, so unless you don't use optical media, that's another "price you'll have to pay!"

Is it a business system? I think so, but living with a MacBook for two weeks might not be enough time to detect all the vices it could be hiding, beneath its sleek exterior.

Well, imagine your IT department said "Right, at the next hardware upgrade cycle, we're giving everybody a cheque for £1,000 and telling them to get Windows, Mac or Linux systems."

There's a perception that if all IT departments did that, Microsoft's OS market share and profits would plummet like a stone, maybe even more than if they put a spell checker and a word counter in Notepad [that's a Microsoft Office joke].

If your IT department said "Right, we're replacing all Windows systems with Macs", you can guarantee a fair few people in your company would be wandering around for weeks looking lost.

"I don't know what to do with myself now that I don't need to open up a Windows control panel and fiddle around with the settings," would probably be a fair comment from many of them. Like those weekend car maintenance diehards, they can't resist messing around under the bonnet, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

Of course, it's still possible to dig around inside the Macs innards if you're OK messing about with Unix command lines, but what's the point – it's not the same as digging around in Microsoft OSes – or as George Formby famously put it, "You should see what I can see, when ah'm cleanin' Windows".

One thing that did alarm me was that the firewall was turned off by default, and I suppose if Microsoft had done that with Windows, the headlines would have been quite predictable: "Windows firewall off by default shock. Ministry steps in."

It seems that Mac OS X has always had its firewall off by default. but as we're continually told network security should be layered, a bit like ogres according to DreamWorks' Shrek.

I'd turn the firewall on – better being too secure, than less secure.

Are Macs female? Maybe not – they'd have the firewall on by default.

Dave Bailey, Reviews Editor