iPad security risks
Apple’s much hyped iPad tablet may come tightly locked down but the device is still likely to be affected by many of the security issues that affect the iPhone, as well as some of its own.reports By John Leyden.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, commented: “The iPad, from the sound of things, will be as locked down as the iPhone. Hackers will no doubt try to jailbreak it. But the main threat would be phishing and browser exploits.”
Malware related risks may also trouble the iPad. The only risks to affect the iPhone to date have relied on a very small but well publicised number of worms (e.g. ikee) that exploited default passwords and open SSH shells on jailbroken iPhones.
However, while the iPad uses the same OS as the iPhone, it is more powerful; that means attacks based on doctored PDF files may potentially become a risk, explained Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.
“The device is really close to an iPhone, so we should expect a similar security. However, unlike the iPhone, it would be able to open PDF documents by default.
“2009 has been a year with a number of different vulnerabilities exploited through PDF documents. So this will be one of the major risk vectors that the iPad will face when it arrives.
“The other major vector could be Flash, but this time Apple has decided not to include it in his browser, the same thing that happens in the iPhone.”
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