iPhone: Weapon of mass destruction?

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times:the iPhone will be the downfall of modern civilization as we know it.And, not just because it promotes that crazy Rock music that's all the rage with those teen-aged Greasers in their high-tops and leather jackets. It's much worse than that, says Apple. It could even promote drug trafficking.

According to Apple, "each iPhone contains a unique Exclusive Chip Identification (ECID) number that identifies the phone to the cell tower. With access to the BBP via jailbreaking, hackers may be able to change the ECID, which in turn can enable phone calls to be made anonymously (this would be desirable to drug dealers, for example...". That's a lot of acronyms that seem to suggest that, allowing users to change their ECID via the BBP could leave us all SOL, FUBAR, and possibly DOA.

But, it gets worse: "More pernicious forms of activity may also be enabled. For example, a local or international hacker could potentially initiate commands (such as a denial of service attack) that could crash the tower software, rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data. In short, taking control of the BBP software would be much the equivalent of getting inside the firewall of a corporate computer – to potentially catastrophic result. The technological protection measures were designed into the iPhone precisely to prevent these kinds of pernicious activities..."

Though this makes no sense, whatsoever, to most people, the use of the word "pernicious" twice in the same paragraph should be very very frightening to anyone who knows the definition. (Pernicious [\pər-ˈni-shəs\] : highly injurious or destructive : deadly)

The co-founders of Apple changed the world by soldering parts together in their garages. If they say it's going to end, we might want to take them seriously. It seems to me that the message is clear: Fight the iPhone hacking, drug-dealing, bandwidth-hogging hippies over there, or we'll have to fight them over here in our own backyards.

Is there an app for that?

Don't believe me? Read more @ Wired (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/jailbreak/)

About Jeff M. Fischbach

Jeff Michael Fischbach is founder and President of SecondWave Information Systems (SecondWave.com), a consulting firm specializing in Forensic Technology. Since 1994, he has served as a board member and technology adviser to numerous professional organizations and corporations. Mr. Fischbach has been engaged as a litigation consultant and Forensic Examiner, offering expert advice and oversight on matters involving intellectual property, computers, information systems, satellite, tracking and wireless communications technologies. He has advised law enforcement, foreign government representatives, judges, lawyers and the press.