iPhone flaw lets hackers take over: A firm called Independent Security Evaluators says that they've found a flaw in the iPhone that lets hackers take over through a WiFi connection or by tricking you into going to a Web site that contains malicious code. You can see a demonstration of the exploit on the Web. The exploit is not "in the wild" (as security geeks put it), so you shouldn't stash your iPhone until Apple fixes it. But you should take the same precautions you would take if you were using a notebook computer in public - use only WiFi access points you trust, don't visit Web sites that seem fishy, and never, ever open links in emails, even from people you know. As The Unofficial Apple Weblog says, "This exploit does not allow an attack from a remote machine on a shared WiFi network that is uncompromised; you'd have to connect to a WLAN specifically configured and owned to catch iPhones."
Apple announces quarterly earning on Wednesday: You can tune into Apple's Third Quarter Results Conference Call, which will probably be dominated by iPhone reports. Analysis think that Apple earned about $637 million for the quarter, but everyne will want to here about how many iPhones were sold.
Duke University says iPhones are OK: Remember when Duke University blamed the iPhone for its network problems? Turns out that the problem was with the Cisco routers, not with the iPhone. It's nice to hear that the lazy IT folks got off their arses and did something, instead of speculating what was wrong and simply fell back on blaming the new hardware.
In other news: The guy who leaked photos of the new Harry Potter book doesn't know about the power of EXIF data. If you ever use Best Buy's Geek squad to fix a computer, make sure you remove your private data from the hard drive. And finally, shoes are bad for you.
suthrn_tech_on_the_skids
July 24, 2007 at 11:54am
for those of you outside the South (or as i like to call it ... the Bubba-plex) ... getting anything actually accomplished is practically forbidden. what you're supposed to do ... is blame something (or someone) and then hire a contractor that's actually capable of doing the job you were hired to do. Bubba's don't get 'process of elimination' or 'test and evaluate'. they do get politics on a very basic level. basically, the South is like one big high school. and even grown men go by the names of Bobby, Danny, and such. so don't be shocked that Duke blamed the iPhone. i'm sure their system admins are all microsofties because MS fits their laziness just fine - click this button to update yer server. they could never configure a *nix box. that would require reading a manual and actually making an effort. ick.
Crapgame
July 24, 2007 at 6:32am
Hey, not to worry. We here at Duke have addressed the problem. The IT manager that erroneously blamed the iPhone for our WiFi problems has been promoted to President Broadhead's staff in charge of Crisis management. With skills like his we never have to worry about mismanaging another LaCrosse scandal again!
Jon
July 23, 2007 at 10:43pm
Haha. That Shoe article sounded interesting. But way too long!
derekm
July 23, 2007 at 2:32pm
From Duke's website...
"By now many of you have read news accounts around iPhones and Duke’s wireless network. Some of the reports incorrectly made it sound as if our entire wireless network had collapsed. Others made it sound as if the iPhone could not work correctly on our wireless network. Still others seem to imply that Duke’s network was deficient in some way because the problem had not been encountered more broadly..."
...and now, from Kevin Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, at Duke's Office of Information Technology just a few days ago via Macworld...
'"I don’t believe it's a Cisco problem in any way, shape, or form," he says firmly...
So far, the communication with Apple has been "one-way," Miller says, with the Duke team filing the problem ticket. He says Apple has told him the problem is being "escalated" but as of mid-afternoon Monday, nothing substantive had been heard Apple.'
Nice spin Duke; I'm getting dizzy.
