With the growth and development of modern technology what also increased in leaps and bounds are the ways and means to misuse it. The scientific advancements are not without its curses. People with wrong motive use these for their selfish ends. Computer hackers are one such cyber thieves who, by using their modern technologies can steal valuable information from electronic devices of other people.
Focusing on this security issue, Apple recently launched a new defense mechanism to protect the electronic devices and safeguard the valuable personal information of the users- like the bank account number, passwords and credit card numbers. The mechanism would also act as a shield from unauthorized viewing of contact information, emails. Apple received a warning for such a crisis earlier this year from three scientists.
Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song, two graduate pupils and a research scientist from Georgia Institute of Technology, Billy Lau has been working to resolve the issue. The three of them demonstrated security susceptibility and their research result at the convention held on Wednesday in Las Vegas. After the said hacking convention of Black Hat, almost as many as seven thousand security personnel are going through a period of training on the threats of modern day cyber hackers and the strategies to overcome them.
While explaining their research in the Las Vegas meet the trio gave a complete demonstration of their study and their findings. They connected an iPhone with a customized charger attached to a computer that is automated to attack the iOS gadget and it did. Thereby proving their point.
The research results are expected to be made public by autumn of this year. Until then the problem would persist. The security up gradation targets iPhones and iPads, which are mostly affected when the user connects it to the fake charging station. The new software version is known as iOS 7 that has been provided to the software developers for further analysis and security check. However, the operating system for the Android is not prone to these kinds of attack. As the users are automatically warned of the presence of a bug as soon as they connect their device with a computer, serving as a charging agent.
The latest beta iOS 7 is guaranteed to serve a two-way purpose namely, as a protector of the software from any unlawful activity and it is expected to become a spying tool for the user. Prevention is better than cure –the Apple researchers seem to comprehend that lately- a scientist commented that right now they are focusing on discovering the security bug, which will enable the company to fix them even before the criminals can detect them and take advantage. Billy Lau opined that the best way to solve a problem is not to shut it down but to discuss it openly. As the criminals of the cyber world are growing smarter day by day. Truly, it is always not very easy to identify them. What we can do is to be on our safeguard as much as possible. The best way is to discuss it frankly and adopt safety measures.