Maybe Steve Jobs had a point? :: The Future of the Internet

Maybe Steve Jobs had a point?

November 9th, 2009 | by elisabeth | Published in iphone | 3 Comments

This blog and JZ’s book have both taken issue with Steve Jobs’ introduction to the iPhone:

We define everything that is on the phone. You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers.

But this story is a reminder that he has a point. A Dutch hacker found a relatively easy way to exploit jailbroken iPhones—specifically, he hacked phones with SSH running where the default root password hadn’t been changed—and then sent the owners a text message saying that he had access to their files, and demanding 5 euros in exchange for instructions on restoring the default.

(Two questions: first, wouldn’t most people who hacked an iPhone know how to restore factory settings? Second, all that work for five euros? It seems this guy may not really be meant to be a hacker—he has since returned the money and apologized.)

So yes, Jobs is right: jailbroken phones are less secure (or at least require more expertise to secure -JZ). There have been remarkably few security problem with non-jailbroken iPhones. On the other hand, jailbroken phones do cool things (like run SSH). What Professor Zittrain’s work seeks is a way to balance those two truths. The App Store is one such balance, but perhaps leans too much on the side of authoritarian control (and the content-based censorship has nothing to do with security). That’s why we ought to explore other balances too.

—By Elisabeth Oppenheimer

Responses

Feed

Ian Brown says:

November 9th, 2009 at 2:55 pm (#)

And on the reliability side, the iPhone is appalling. Windows has nothing on the number of times mine needs a hard reset. (No jailbreaks in sight either).
Bertil Hatt says:

November 9th, 2009 at 3:22 pm (#)

I’m not sure it’s jailbroken iPhones that are less secure because they are jailbroken. If I understand properly, jailbroekn iPhones have the ability to install a less secure app (or, rather, an app harder to secure). The problem would be if there is only one jailbreaking program available, and you have to have the SSH running to have it — because that would be yet another monopoly forcing their ways on your use of your phone.

The maximum liberty and safety isn’t from a closed garden, but a garden where eveil trees are clearly labeled as such——because hacking isn’t always bad.

I’m not happier in a world without drugs: I’m happier in a world where no one can sell me drugs without being both competent and honnest enough to tell me what would be the consequences for me.
FOI Topics and Links of the Week :: The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It says:

December 10th, 2009 at 1:08 am (#)

[...] Cloud Computing an Option for Disaster Recovery Vogels discusses one of the big upsides of cloud computing—your data might be safer. We’ve discussed this topic here. [...]

Blog

Controlling Cyberspace

This semester, we’re starting an exciting new class, aimed not at lawyers, but undergraduate CS students here at Harvard. It’s called CS42: Controlling Cyberspace – and we’re sharing the syllabus online. Anything big we’re missing? Read more »

Computers Going Wild?

Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society was an informal discussion that took place at Harvard Law School on December 8^th, 2011. Hosted by Jonathan Zittrain, Marin Soljačić and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, we brought together eighteen mostly local guests to discuss the ways that AI is changing society. Unlike futuristic predictions involving the Singularity or the underlying technology, this workshop explored current technology. Sessions included discussions on warfare, finance, education, and labor. Below is a list of attendees and a summary of the discussion.

Ideas for a Better Internet

Ideas for a Better Internet, or i4bi, is an interdisciplinary course at Harvard and Stanford that challenges students from law, computer science, and public policy to come up with novel and plausible ways to improve the Internet and its use. i4bi centers on immersing participants in Internet history, technologies, and politics, so that students can come up with ideas that help to build a better Internet — however they define “better.” Read more »

Microsoft Echoes Apple App Store Requirements

Here at Future of the Internet, we’ve already talked a little bit about Apple’s content requirements for both the iOS and Mac App Stores in JZ’s The PC is Dead post. As JZ said,

“Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore found his iPhone app rejected because it contained “content that ridicules public figures.” Fiore was well-known enough that the rejection raised eyebrows, and Apple later reversed its decision. But the fact that apps must routinely face approval masks how extraordinary the situation is: tech companies are in the business of approving, one by one, the text, images, and sounds that we are permitted to find and experience on our most common portals to the networked world. Why would we possibly want this to be how the world of ideas works, and why would we think that merely having competing tech companies—each of which is empowered to censor—solves the problem?”

Apple’s approach is an example of a larger phenomenon. Read more »

A SOPA compromise is floated

Last week several members of Congress — Senators Wyden, Cantwell, Moran, and Paul, and Reps. Issa, Lofgren and Chaffetz — floated a proposal to substitute for the contentious proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, previously discussed here. Sen. Wyden’s office has commented on the compromise, and TechDirt has a writeup and a copy of the document here. The proposal omits the elements of SOPA that had run into the most resistance. Gone is tinkering with fundamental Internet architecture such as the use of the domain name system. Gone is the involvement of the Attorney General. Gone is the criminal copyright streaming provision that could, theoretically, make a teenage Justin Bieber a felon for streaming amateur videos featuring his renditions of songs by his favorite artists.In all these ways, the Wyden compromise is significantly better than SOPA. So what’s left? Read more »

About Jonathan Zittrain

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School

Tweets from Z

An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.