How Apple's iOS Went From Insecure To Most Secure 312
GMGruman writes "There's no such thing as a perfectly secure operating system, but security experts agree — somewhat grudgingly in some cases — that iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, is the most secure commercial OS today, mobile or desktop. It didn't start that way of course, and Robert Lemos explains what Apple did to go from insecure to most secure."
Frist to get jailbroken... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait... aren't we talking about the same iOS that gets jailbroken like clockwork still?
Most Secure? (Score:2, Insightful)
Grudging (Score:5, Insightful)
Any expert that holds a grudge like that is no expert I ever care to hear from.
Security is a big selling point (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is going after the market of users who are sick of dealing with security issues/malware/etc. They've done it by created a closed system. And while us geeks hate that, it has a strong appeal to most people. When they go to a closed system on Mac's (and they will), that's who they're going to be appealing to. "Buy a computer where all your software is pre-screened through our App Store and you don't have to worry about viruses" is a powerful (and potentially very profitable) message in a time when malware and assorted hacks have become so common.
Re:Security is a big selling point (Score:4, Insightful)
"no economic incentive to attack" iPhones? (Score:5, Insightful)
Although iOS has a lot of security going on underneath the hood, its safety could be due in large part to the fact that attackers have not focused on compromising the devices because there is no economic incentive to attack them, says Lookout's Mahaffey.
Really? No economic incentive?
Unlike PCs and Macs, every cell phone is directly associated with a credit card. Essentially a cell phone IS money. Bad actors can - and do - monetize this with malware that places calls to sketchy and high-cost phone numbers, or send texts to subscribe to "information services," resulting in (fraudulent) charges showing up each month. And good luck trying to dispute charges with your cellular provider on those. They will just tell you that their hands are tied by federal law and that they can't help you, but nonetheless will turn around and threaten you with collection if you don't pay.
There's definitely economic incentive to attack mobile phones.
Um.. No (Score:5, Insightful)
OpenBSD has been at it a lot longer. Even as a Linux Zealot, I would choose OpenBSD for security. IOS is a closed Black-Box that nobody but Stevie knows what's inside. Historically we tend to find *cough*siemens*cough* that closed source, proprietary *cough*secureid*cough* offerings do not necessarily equate to a trustworthy or "secure" system. What seems to happen is closed source options provide a layer of obscurity which allow the governing company *cough*dropbox*cough* to take inexcusable risks with customers assets because, basically, they don't need to show anybody. As long as they never get caught, they save a lot of money not having to implement a system to keep them honest.
Re:Frist to get jailbroken... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Frist to get jailbroken... (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, there it is. Just a few stories ago, there was the headline about Apple putting some desktop and laptop machines behind the walled garden and maybe phasing out OSX altogether.
And then..."iOS is the most secure".
You can start to see the outline of a marketing campaign that will convince people that they really don't need to have anything on their Mac that didn't come from Apple, one way or another.
As a long-time Mac user and owner of several Mac Pro and MacBook Pro machines, I find this transformation of "machines to make things with" to "machines you can consume content with" quite offensive. It may be good business for Apple, and good for Apple shareholders, but for the future of personal computing for people who don't use Windows or Linux, it kind of sucks.
It's pwned before you get it out of the box.. (Score:2, Insightful)
if a hacker did that to my laptop, I'd hunt him down and punch his fucking head in.