Security firms Symantec and Sophos have come out swinging at the new Apple iPhone 4 claiming it is a security risk. So why am I not surprised?
Because security companies like Sophos, McAfee and Symantec are peddling security fear in an effort to get a sale of their products.
Last month I deliberately ran a Windows 7 PC without any additional security package and, guess what, I didn’t get one single attack, or virus for the simple reason that Microsoft is now doing a pretty good job of handling security on a PC.
In what looks like a case of the boy who cried wolf IT security companies are jumping on new products in an attempt to identify flaws within days of a product being launched.
In the 15 years that I have owned a mobile phone I have never once had a security problem other than when someone nicked my mobile.
In the latest security drama to embrace a mobile phone Symantec said that the iPhone 4 device could be exploited by remote attackers.
Experts said that the threat, at present, only exists on paper but that Apple need to issue a fix before it becomes a reality.
Apple said that the company was aware of the report and was investigating.
Apparently the problem lies in the way Apple’s Mobile Safari handles Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.
As the browser automatically opens PDF files, a hacker could embed malicious codes into this file.
Graham Cluley, a computer security expert with Sophos, told the BBC in the UK that the exploit used the same principle as Jailbreakme – a utility that lets iPhone 4 owners run non-Apple approved applications – although it uses the exploit in a benign way.
“It uses the same tricks as you do when jailbreaking,” said Mr Cluley.
“At present, we have yet to see any of these exploits out in the wild, but it is only a matter of time,” he warned.
