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Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking Could Hurt Cell Towers
AHuxley writes "Apple suggests that the nation's cellphone networks could be open to 'potentially catastrophic' cyberattacks by iPhone-using hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their wireless devices. The Copyright Office is currently considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the widespread practice of jailbreaking. Apple has responded to the request by saying that if the 'baseband processor' software — which enables a connection to cell phone towers — is exposed, then a user could crash the tower software, or use the Exclusive Chip Identification number to make calls anonymously. Apple also thinks its closed business model is what made the iPhone a success. The Vodafone scandal from a few years back showed how a network could be compromised, but that was from within. So, what do you think? Is Apple playing the 'evil genius' hacker card or can 'anyone' with a smartphone and a genius friend pop a US cell tower?"
If a jailbroken iPhone can potentially crash a cell tower but a regular run-of-the-mill cell phone cannot, it really makes me wonder what cool toys they've hidden in the jesus phone that makes it so life-threateningly dangerous that it needs to be encased in a kryptonite shield.
Apple is partially right. Their closed business model has lead to the success of the iPhone. (Happy now?)
Seriously. The tight control on the user experience is what maintains the appeal of the device. For most people.
However, where they're wrong is in thinking that they need to prevent jailbreaking in order to maintain this. The people jailbreaking their phones aren't in the majority who bought the phone for the slick and stylish integration. They're a harmless minority, and Apple should be grateful for the extra revenue that a little bit of hacking has brought in.
Also, the part about being a risk to networks is nonsense.
Apple doesn't learn. This very same strategy is what gave Microsoft such a big opening in the 80s. If Apple sticks to the closed system approach they will have higher price points in the short term, but long term will lose out to more open platforms like Android where the incentives for a more diverse network of partners will be greater. In the early 80s Apple outsold IBM and everybody else in PCs. They took their Apple II win and moved up-market with the Mac. Sure the technology and user experience were radically better than the competition, but they further closed down the platform to partners and end users. Pretty quickly the open platform, multi-vendor combination promoted by IBM, Microsoft, and Intel won the day - even though it didn't work as well.
That's what every other mobile operating system does. Apple is essentially suggesting that they are less competent.
Remember how they were playing up the "security flaws" of the other mobile devices, to rationalize not having an SDK, then to rationalize having a closed SDK, and yet, every jailbreak technique roots the device. The iPhone is demonstratively the least secure mobile device out there.
Exactly my thoughts. If the iphone is so damn dangerous, then apple should be forced to recall all of them off the market. There can be no double standards here: if the device is bad for the networks then the device should not be approved. If the device is OK (and it certainly is) then stop bitching when people do what they want with the device they OWN.
If jailbroken iPhones can hurt cell towers, then it's already too late, because there are already jailbroken iPhones.
If jailbroken iPhones can hurt towers, so can un-jailbroken (incarcerated?) ones. All it takes is a bug . . .
I am not a crackpot.
"A phone is the piece of tech that you can never really own."
Not really.
I mean, theoretically anyway. The Neo Freerunner was a tragically badly run project with old technology, a huge price tag and general stink of FAIL. That said, it was a fully programmable phone that you owned and could be used just fine with a base station. Hell, dev models of the android phones are also like this.
Built in obsolescence is only a problem because the state of the art is advancing so rapidly. Like PCs in the late 90s and early 00s. Now you don't care if a machine is two years old. Back then that made it useless.
This is just pure apple fear-mongering.
How come 'jailbreaking' cellphones is not a problen for Europe? There it is a legal right.
I haven't read the story but I guarantee that this argument was a product of the Lawyer's Algorithm, which is as follows:
List all objections to the matter at hand
While true {
List all conceivable objections premised on the prior objections being rejected
}
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
It doesn't have to be that complicated. A single person with a cable connection can knock out a small area code. First, make a list of all valid cell phone numbers. Second, determine each phone numbers specific provider. Third, determine the email address for all valid numbers. Finally, email bomb all the numbers in a random order with a multi-threaded tool. SMS Carpet Bombing persay.
The funniest part is...
I guess you're not supposed to do such things when you run a company that makes handsets, though.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
One cell phone a mile away from a tower can block the tower from all the other cellphones? I call pure unadulterated BS. This sounds like old wives' tales(esp. coming from a AC) like the tales the G4 and G5 are better than their Intel equivalents. Will not stop it from getting modded up though, as it already is.
This space for rent.
That's actually a very important point that no one ever seems to talk about. As bad as MS is, if Apple had become the dominant OS and computer manufacturer they would have stifled innovation and set us back a decade.
My 3Gs is not jailbroken or unlocked but I had to jailbreak and unlock my 3G before I sold it as it was sold to someone on the Rogers network and that phone was bought at Fido. I would rather not have to risk using untested and forensically unverified just to be able to use foreign sims in my 3GS and I'd be willing to pay a fee to Fido to be able to unlock the device.
Carriers should give consumers a break but giving a legal/official option for unlocking phones especially if we bought it unsubsidized.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.