By: Geoph Essex, MSNBC
Apple’s iOS mobile platform, like its desktop-and-notebook sibling Mac OS X, has garnered a reputation for strong security, sleek design and user friendliness. However, as new holes in iOS's security crop up at an increasing pace, this reputation may be exposed to less-than-friendly fire.
Paul Morris of tech site Redmond Pie jokingly dubbed February “the month of the iOS security bugs,” referring to a glut of newly discovered cracks and exploits. Several such exploits were discovered and reported by Ade Barkah on his tech blog, Peekay, including a method of gaining access to contacts and photos — and even making outgoing FaceTime calls — on a locked iPhone with Voice Dial disabled.
Remarkably, iOS has not been the victim of the regular cyberattacks suffered by Windows or rival mobile platform Google Android, even though teams of benign hackers constantly work to subvert its security in order to “jailbreak” iPhones and iPads.