Apple: iPhone Jailbreaking could Break Cell Phone Towers
Posted 07/31/09 at 10:40:55 AM by Paul Lilly
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According to Apple, you should think twice before jailbreaking your iPhone to run software that hasn't been approved for distribution through the iPhone App Store. Should you decide to do it anyway, cellphone towers could come under "potentially catastrophic" cyberattacks, Apple says.
In a filing with the Copyright Office, which is considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the practice of jailbreaking, Apple wrote:
"A local or international hacker could potentially initiate commands (such as a denial of service attack) that could crash the tower software, rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data. Taking control of the BBP software would be much the equivalent of getting inside the firewall of a corporate computer -- to potentially catastrophic result."
Apple went on to say that the technological protection measures in the iPhone were specifically designed to avoid such scenarios, and jailbreaking would undo all of that.
Fred von Lohmann, the EFF attorney who has requested that consumers have the legal right to jailbreak iPhones, isn't buying Apple's claims.
"As far as I know, nothing like that has ever happened," Lohmann said in an interview. "This kind of theoretical threat is more FUD than truth."
Iphone Jailbreaking
Submitted by glbarneson on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 12:17pm
I just made a change to my network settings in the registry. Watch out internet, I'm about to crash you.
If the cellular system is so vulnerable that modifing a phone will crash it, or part of it, shouldn't it be repaired or upgraded to fix the problem, rather than limiting the consumers rights.
If I can do it inadvertantly what is stoping someone from doing it deliberatly? Oh thats right, its illegal....
apple is starting to worry
Submitted by nekollx on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 9:47am
apple is starting to worry me withtheir recent tactics.
What's next "anyone with hardware over 2 years old will be shut down, to many vunerabilities"
------------------------------
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Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
it is not your phone any more
Submitted by Dexter243 on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 12:24pm
Nutcracklng snack
ok apple after some one buys that phone it is there phone now
and if thay want to crack it hack it or even cut it in half with a saw it is there's to do so
so SHUT UP ALL READY/.
Dear Apple, boo hoo. "We
Submitted by Tekzel on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 9:25am
Dear Apple, boo hoo. "We can't control people as much as we want to." I dispise control freaks. If they had their way, they would implant some kind of mind control chip in all of their users... and the sad part is, most of them would stand in line for days to allow Apple to do it.
Submitted by chmiel03 on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 1:05am
What a load of crap from Apple. This is simply a scare tactic to keep consumers from gaining more usefulness from their phones. Have they considered that its not the consumer that is the threat but the potential hacker? If a hacker wanted to crash a tower using a denial of service attack, a hacker can buy and jail break his own phone. Asking the masses to not jail break their phones does nothing to prevent this.
Submitted by dethdeks on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 4:01am
i should buy a iphone just to jail break it.
Submitted by mesiah on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 8:21pm
I love it, keep it coming apple. You know those people that get themselves into hot water and instead of laying low until the dust settles they just keep running their mouths and digging the hole deeper? In the past month or two apple has been digging like a mad man, and even the faithful are starting to question the companies actions. Makes me giddy, like the week before Christmas when I was young. Now all I can do is sit back, cross my fingers, and hope I get to watch a slow motion train wreck as apple single handedly takes their public image from cool kid to villain.
Submitted by freak720 on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 4:20pm
the moment someone gets around to sueing apple for Anti-competitive practices, its going to be hell for them, and them doing stuff like this is why.
Submitted by aviaggio on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 1:40pm
Every time you jailbreak an iPhone an angel gets his wings ripped off :(
Submitted by SpazzAttack on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 7:32pm
ROTFLMAO!
Submitted by N25PHILLY on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 1:20pm
I just read a report from Apple saying that if I use non-Apple products my penis will fall off. To the Apple store!!!
Last time I checked...
Submitted by Havok on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 12:37pm
The term 'last time I checked...' wasn't used as much as here. :)
But seriously, couldn't "terrorists" always have hacked cell towers or phones for the sake of Pete?!
Apple suddenly realizes that they've been alienating themselves from the overall population, more so than the Jerry Seinfield ads mind you, and what do they do? They still continue to alienate themselves. By making wild accusations at open source lovers and those who wish for freedom from Apple's tyranny. Next they'll be making white/silver flavoured Kool-aid...
OMGWTFBBQ
Submitted by boyincity on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 11:34am
last time i checked, you could install any app you wanted on just about every other capable phone ever made, and yet somehow... if it happens on the iPhone... technological doomsday impending?
Besides, no one said you had to allow every mom and pop app to run with root access apple.
It would be awesome if someone would make a phone with a touchscreen and a cool looking, extensible *nix based operating system, with a good user interface and an app store and large community of open source application developers, and rather than locking down what applications could be created and installed it would just warn you what they were capable of, and let the consumer decide what to install....
Wait... *looks down at his android G1*
Well then...
Last time I checked wasn't
Submitted by dag1992 on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 10:54am
Last time I checked wasn't Apple's market based around spoiled rich kids haha?
APPLE Can Screw Off
Submitted by Chief_runningwater on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 9:20am
This is so dumb I had to register just so I could comment on this. Apple is only say this so people will not Jailbreak there Iphone or Itouch to get free apps + better customization, all they want to do is make a profit and jailbreaking is one why they can't so then all they do is tell the public some lame story that could happen but never will just to scare people into not jailbreaking there Iphone or Itouch
WTF Apple
Submitted by quickone on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 9:00am
What the hell is up with Apple lately? Doom and gloom if your crack
your iphone, remove google voice from their app store, threaten
Microsoft with a lawsuit because they lowered their horridly over priced
macbook, trying to make itunes only work on their own stuff (nice work
Palm on the roundabout), can only use OS X on over priced Apple
products.They are acting like a spoiled rich kid.
Don't touch my things, what is mine is mine, what is yours is mine.Apple, I have a feeling your whole family is going down, but for now, I
have to study. Patho physiology final today.. study break is over thx Mr. Lilly
"Lately?" Apple has always
Submitted by horzo on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 11:07am
"Lately?" Apple has always been a spectacularly greedy company hiding behind clever marketing. This is no surprise.
Submitted by compro01 on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 9:33pm
Nah, that's only since they released the Macintosh 128k in 1984. They were different in the Apple II era.
Submitted by erolsipar on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 8:20am
Thats a good revenge on expensive deals. I had jail braked my iphone 3G S 16GB right away after I got it.
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