With the coming Black Hat 2007 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Apple is working overtime to fix several key security flaws found in the iPhone. With more than 3,000 hackers and government personnel attending, Apple is doing what they can before several flaws are shwon at the conference and the rest of the world.
One iPhone flaw, which was announced Monday by Independent Security Evaluators, showed how crackers could retrieve information from an unpatched iPhone by visiting a rogue Web site.
Apple has yet to comment if they are going to release a software update before or during the conference. This gives Apple just under seven days to produce the patch.
The Independent Security Evaluators are to show conventioneers their findings on Thursday. Issuing the update would show iPhone users that Apple is better suited at updating its software, rather than letting the carrier produce the software. Common practice in the industry is that carriers update the software on mobile phones.
Apple is concerned that carriers release their software updates slowly, even when there are known problems. There are several smart phones with unpatched problems, which are not getting updated. This may be a good test to see if Apple can produce these updates sooner rather than later or not at all.
There are usually quite a few problems in any initial software release especially for a smart phone. Microsoft has had the luxury of several versions to clear up a lot of their major software problems. Apple has been known in the past to produce security updates quickly. Only time will tell if they are up to the task. Via Infoworld.