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Apple hiring security manager to fight Iphone jailbreaking

Cask said:
Of course there is a security hole that can be used by anyone who knows how. But the truth is, they have only been exploited for jailbreaking and not really anything else. It would be clueless to think that Apple's main concerning regarding the platform's security right now isn't related to jailbreaking.
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If they want to be accepted by the enterprise community AND if they want to add functionality like allowing us to make purchases in stores and on toll roads using RFID technology of our iPhones (once that comes along) then they need to make the devices more secure. They have to demonstrate that security before people will take the higher stakes risks.

Right now the holes are only being exploited for jailbreaking because there isn't a lot of incentive to do more. Once the prize has increased, the incentive will be there.
 
An accurate statement would be 'all pirates are jail breakers, but not all jail breakers are pirates.'
 
It doesn't matter if apple works on preventing jailbreaking, eventually it will be cracked, ALWAYS.

Thus is the nature of nerds with a passion for being original, and not getting dates.:(
 
darngooddesign said:
Apple is motivated by profit, and unfortunately pirate apps, enabled via Jailbreak, are the reason they fight Jailbreaking.
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I don't agree. Apple have been fighting jailbreaking from Day 1, (unsuccessfully, so far), well before they even thought of the App Store.

That was in the days of "why would we need apps, the iphone already does everything you could possibly want via the built in stuff..... ooh look, stock quotes....."

In fact if there had never been jailbreaks and never been Cydia, there probably never would have been an App Store.

Apple are just control freaks. Now they use "pirated apps" as a justification, but it's rubbish.
 
Just to add, I have jailbroken from Day 1 of my first iPhone, and have never installed a cracked app ever.

80%? Utter garbage. Anyone can make up statistics.

81% of the people who put anti-jailbreaking posts on this forum either 1. work for Apple's security team or 2. have really bad acne and at least 3 Mac's. Which are you?
 
Moi un Mouton said:
Just to add, I have jailbroken from Day 1 of my first iPhone, and have never installed a cracked app ever.

80%? Utter garbage. Anyone can make up statistics.

81% of the people who put anti-jailbreaking posts on this forum either 1. work for Apple's security team or 2. have really bad acne and at least 3 Mac's. Which are you?
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Maybe he's in the other 19%!!! :eek:

But really, I have a poll going on in the iPhone Hacks forum and so far only about 33% of (60) jailbreakers admit to piracy. Drastically differs from the 80% quoted earlier.
 
ViViDboarder said:
Maybe he's in the other 19%!!! :eek:

But really, I have a poll going on in the iPhone Hacks forum and so far only about 33% of (60) jailbreakers admit to piracy. Drastically differs from the 80% quoted earlier.
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To be fair, those are people who actually fessed up.
 
The real figure of jailbroken iPhones known to be running pirated apps is 38%. That's 1.5 million users worldwide.

Reference

The true figure is probably higher, as this only represents those unsophisticated pirates who take no precautions against detection. But even working with these statistics, although the proportion of known jailbroken pirates is technically a minority, it is a vast number of actual users and it is likely to be one of the reasons why Apple feels the need to beef up their security. It's not so much a question of looking after Apple's bottom line, as I see it. It's more a question of fostering confidence within the legitimate App Store developer community that their interests are being protected.

Another likely reason is illustrated by the recent SMS hack.

Reference

This shows that a significant proportion of jailbreakers lack the technical knowledge and/or responsibilty required to ensure their own device's security once they've circumvented the measures put in place by Apple. Security lapses of this nature are used by the press to cast Apple in a bad light and it's only natural that the company would want to take ownership of this issue.
 
cal6n said:
The real figure of jailbroken iPhones known to be running pirated apps is 38%. That's 1.5 million users worldwide.

Reference

The true figure is probably higher, as this only represents those unsophisticated pirates who take no precautions against detection. But even working with these statistics, although the proportion of known jailbroken pirates is technically a minority, it is a vast number of actual users and it is likely to be one of the reasons why Apple feels the need to beef up their security. It's not so much a question of looking after Apple's bottom line, as I see it. It's more a question of fostering confidence within the legitimate App Store developer community that their interests are being protected.

Another likely reason is illustrated by the recent SMS hack.

Reference

This shows that a significant proportion of jailbreakers lack the technical knowledge and/or responsibilty required to ensure their own device's security once they've circumvented the measures put in place by Apple. Security lapses of this nature are used by the press to cast Apple in a bad light and it's only natural that the company would want to take ownership of this issue.
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From the first source, the pirates make up of only 3% of all iPhone users. This is not quite as staggering considering how it is with desktops (41% according to one source). http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/20...nt-of-personal-computing-software-is-pirated/ It should be noted that the iPhone % is DEVICES while the computer % is software products. If this was the case with the phone devices you'd probably have to multiply it by the number of average apps that a pirate downloads. Also, I found this paragraph particularly interesting.
Other statistics of note were that the US, UK, and Japan were the bottom three major countries pirating applications, while China, Russia, and Brazil were the top three. Also, individuals who pirate applications tend to use them less and for a shorter amount of time than those who buy. This seems fairly simple to explain, as it seems to point to the fact that people value—and get more use out of-—things they pay for. However, pirated apps have a higher likelihood of crashing, which could also have something to do with it.
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No surprises with Russia and China on the top of that list, but the most interesting part was the stats of people who use the apps. This is a common argument and I often believe that it is not a lie, but that doesn't make it ethically right. The people pirating the apps are people who probably wouldn't have purchased them in the first place, due to the fact that they would barely use them. Really the developers don't lose out in that sense, but this does NOT make it right. If you don't think it's worth the money then you don't really deserve to use the product IMO.

The second source and part of your post makes much more sense as to why Apple would be cracking down. The easier jailbreaking gets the more you are going to have clueless people doing it. People that are going to get popups from things they don't know, bring it to Apple, complain about it or do other things that are going to make things tough for Apple.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
I know for a fact apple could start allowing themes and even sell them in the app store. These means more money for them and requires no real support. As for proof of this go look at the blackberry comminty. There are quite a few very popular "premium" themes out there that people sell for profit. Apple could just sell them in the app store. Allow people to post free or "premium" the ones that cost money take the normal 30% cut and take the free money.
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This. Customization is the only reason I jailbreak anyway. I don't see myself leaving the iPhone if that ability is permanently (even temporarily) taken away, but I do see myself being a lot less enchanted with it.
 
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