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Was the iPhone ready for prime time?
10 comments- IT TOPICS:Security
I'll admit freely that I'm a little jealous of people who have iPhones; I want one for myself just because they're so new, so pretty and shiny. But even if I could afford one right now, I doubt I'd pick one up. Between of the problems with Safari and the efforts being made to attack the phone by anyone looking to make a name for themselves, the security on the iPhones is going to be more than a little questionable for the next few months. Given that the latest set of vulnerabilities discovered can lead to full control over the iPhone, I'm doubly glad I haven't purchased one.
I'm not one of those people who put their entire lives in their cell phone. To be honest, I barely use my cell phone's capabilities beyond being an address book and connecting to my laptop to the Internet while on the road. I personally don't see much common sense in putting major portions of my digital life into a device I could easily lose in a cab or drop in a toilet (don't laugh, I can't be the only one to have done that). But I know other people who rely on their phone more than they do their laptop or desktop, which makes any vulnerability in the phone software doubly important to them.
When the beta for Safari was released it only took security researchers a few hours to find vulnerabilities. While the version of Safari on the iPhone seems to be a little more secure, the fact that a link on a malicious web site can cause the iPhone to dial out is a serious concern. I'm sure Apple is doing everything they can to fix these holes, but I wish they'd done their beta testing before releasing the iPhone, rather than letting their customers do it for them.
If you own an iPhone, be very careful about what you put on it. I suspect that we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg concerning the vulnerabilities to be found in the iPhone. It's the hottest thing in the mobile phone market, everyone who has one wants to use all it's capabilities, and it's untested. All of these make it a very ripe target for malicious activity, so expect a lot of patching in the foreseeable future. I just hope the patches don't lead to problems of their own.
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