Apple: Macs vulnerable to Wi-Fi hijacks

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The "Real" world? Hardly

Wow, great bit of revisionist history, nice spin.

---With so many people trying to cover their butts - including you Tic, if you are honest with yourself - you are not going to find out the truth.---

What butt do I have to cover? I said SecureWorks did an awful job all along, and what I wanted was to finally hear the truth. For this I should apologize?

---However, as you quoted - Secureworks told Apple something was wrong with their software. Apple looked and found things. We'll probably never know if they match the flaws that Secureworks warned them about, but the probability seems high.---

Great, I'm going to start a security firm. Hey, MS, there's something wrong with your OS. Now go find it and fix it yourself. How much do you think I can charge for this?

---Nor did I find the demo confusing. They stated that the vulnerability was in the third party card/drivers---

Okay, here's where you start to lose your grip on reality. The demo was confusing. They claimed they could hack a native Mac. Then, they showed a video of them hacking an oddly configured Mac with a 3rd party card. Then they restated their eariler claim but offered no evidence. I find this confusing, or at the very least, highly suspicious. I also found it odd that the hackers in question directl insulted Mac users, but claimed they were using a 3rd party card so as not to single anyone out. Seems contradictory to me.

---The hysteria was caused by Apple users not being able to believe their beloved computers could be flawed.---

Ah, the beloved strawman argument, so well loved in the Windows world. Yes, all Mac users believe that our computers are invulnerable and perfect. In truth, the hysteria was caused by multiple things. First, the obnoxious insults mentioned above. Second, a Washington Post columnist wrote an article titled "Hack a Mac in 60 Seconds" with no evidence to back it up. I guess it's a headline that got him more attention than "Hack a specially configured Mac that's set up in a way that no one uses in 60 seconds". Then he wrote repeated blog entries restating his claims, but offering no evidence than the word of the people involved. Then George Ou stepped in and wrote similar blog entries, offering again, just quotes as evidence (and usually just quotes from the Washington Post reporter).

That's why people got up in arms. Claims were made, insults were thrown, evidence and details were never offered. If I told you I knew of an exploit that made your computer easily hacked but refused to tell you any details or point you to it so you could fix it, would you be annoyed with me?

---You can't stop the bugs, you can only reduce them and provide professional solutions and patching when they occur. Apple was told, they looked and fixed things - no complaints from me.---

A professional solution would have been nice. At least Apple acted professionally (apparently). Unless further details come out, I can't say the same for SecureWorks who have not helped their reputation.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 09/22/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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