“Writing for Wired, Kim Zetter published an article that attempts to portray the iPhone as a security boondoggle on the order of Windows 95, due to fundamental mistake Apple made in designing it. Fortunately, Zetter is wrong, here’s why,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for RoughlyDrafted.
“Zetter’s article revolves around the idea that because the iPhone runs all its internal applications as the same root user account, users are imperiled by potential crisis. How bad is it? Windows bad, at least according to Zetter’s headline,” Dilger writes.
“Zetter clearly does not understand the subject matter she presents, and should not be writing about it without first passing her copy to someone with security credentials. She also should have talked to more than just one source; in this case it was Dan Geer, who only seems to be an expert at being an expert,” Dilger writes. “What’s next, an article on global warming, interviewing science fictionalist Michael Crichton?”
Dilger dares Wired “to have Zetter rewrite the article after interviewing more than one source. Perhaps this would result in an informed, balanced piece rather than a simple regurgitation of the message one individual fed her as a story.”
“The entire premise of Zetter’s article is flawed; running services as root makes no difference to users, and does not expose them to special rings of evil. Apple has also released rapid patches for addressing vulnerabilities that have been found. Incidentally, they were found in large part because the iPhone is built using a lot of publicly scrutinized, mature code,” Dilger writes. “Windows isn’t; its a black hole of proprietary software that is only ‘open’ in the sense of Pandora’s Box. Which is why Windows–and not just Windows 95–most certainly does not rival the security of the iPhone, hypothetically or in practical terms.”
Much more in the full article here.
Seems that MDN ought to create a “Mary Jo” award for shockingly bad tech news. First nominee – Kim Zetter.
smack, right in the kisser. I love it when uninformed buffoons get it right back.
A woman writing about tech. ’nuff said.
Zingggggggggg.
Personally I am an expert on experts pretending to be experts….ya know what I mean?
@anthony007
Nuff with the misogynist crapola also.
If she was black would that mean that all black tech writers are also idiots?
You are probably just a little kid, but just so you know there are a ton of female hackers and techies. For instance, Erica Sadun is (judging by the name) also a woman but she is one of the leading lights in the iPhone hacker community, which is kind of the bleeding edge of Apple tech know-how right now.
No one with a mind as closed as yours could possibly be smart enough to call out even this idiotic columnist, let alone make any pronouncements about tech in general so maybe you should leave the commenting to people who know what they are talking about.
Maybe Dan Geer was also her ex (spurt)?
@anthony007
The first compiler for a computer programming language was written by Grace Hopper. She is often called “Amazing Grace”.
’nuff said.
Fact check here.
If you go through Michael Crichton’s book: “State of Fear,” you will find that while it is not his best story ever, it does accurately portray Global Warming for what it is, A POLITICAL MOVEMENT.
All Chrichton does is point out that every single piece of evidence for Global Warming has many more than ONE solitary explanation.
What Global Warming does quite nicely is fit into the plans of those who seek to blame industrialized nations (read: The United States) for all their ills.
People slaughtering each other in Dafur? Well it must be due to starvation which is of course due to Global Warming, which is of course because of the United States, which must somehow be the fault of George Bush.
Chrichton effectively shows that we are being pushed in a direction by people who use our FEARS to manipulate us.
In this sense, the article concerning the iPhone is more akin to the people who shout GLOBAL WARMING in the crowded global theatre, than it is Chrichton’s views.
Talk about playing on our fears…I dare you to take a full look at the following… http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ …speaking of Bush (et al) and “playing” on our fears, he and his movement are the worst.
@Maryland Balloon Guy
Seems that MDN ought to create a “Mary Jo” award for shockingly bad tech news. First nominee – Kim Zetter.
Could not have said it any better!!
all our moms are women.
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
I watched all of it.
Another one I would recommend is: The Pharmacratic Inquisition 2007 – It is long also, I think I saw it on google video and then download the torrent.
Both are too much for most people to handle.
Wow, this sure got off-topic, I expected more people to zing Wired for their gonzo-styled journalism. Instead we get rants on global warming….wtf?
i think women are keen
I don’t know anything about UNIX but if Steve says it’s OK for everyone to use the same ROOT account, it must be fine…..
Mac Users don’t “tinker” with that OS stuff… We just believe everything Jobs says and remember, every Apple product is perfect!!!
Well duh!
D.A. Dilger is great for this kind of tech writing. Always calling the truly inept on their errors.
God love him.
“Nuff with the misogynist crapola also.”
And let’s not forget ChrissyOne, far and away the most intelligent commenter in this forum, bar none.
Oh no he di’int…
Y’see this is why I never read RoughlyDrafted. Not only are his articles just that, roughly drafted, but he continues to mix in political asides into his writing. The latter has the effect of making him look even more stupid than his low quality of writing does. And as far as Chrichton being an idiot, does Al Gore have any more scientific background? Chrichton, as an SF writer, has to know how science works. Do you really think Al knows as much? Just shut up Daniel.
As far as Zeitgeist goes, why don’t you make your point right here?
As far as Bush goes, is Edwards any better, ranting about how soon all young black males will be dead or in jail? How about Hillary, who acts as though the world will end if children are not insured by the government? How about Kerry, who seems to think it’s a horrible thing that we don’t play kissy-face with the Europeans? If Bush is so successful at playing on fears, then why do opinion polls put his job performance in the toilet? Something doesn’t add up, guys.
What the real deal is here is that Bush presents more of the real world than you can handle. Now if you can’t handle Bush, I doubt you could ever handle a Reagan or a TR. You whining internet libtards couldn’t handle the real truth of knowing how many foreign nationals cross the border each year, how the police CAN’T protect you everywhere you go, how many mosques preach death to America in the U.S. alone, and on and on. Bush is a fear-monger only to the most cowardly. To those of us without blinders on, he’s too soft.
“Wow, this sure got off-topic, I expected more people to zing Wired for their gonzo-styled journalism. Instead we get rants on global warming….wtf?”
so a sexist, a conservative and a bunch of Mac fans all walk into a thread……
speaking of fear mongering looks like BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots is back! hi monger!
To Kim Zetter: The iPhone isn’t a desktop computer you dumb bitch, there’s no need to have more than one user profile.
Reagan and Bush(es) were/are puppets of the ‘owning class’, unless you’re part of that, you are just fodder for their use. BTSOI, have you ever researched ‘false flag’ operations? Have you researched wealth accumulation rates over the past 30 or so years? The only candidates who are challenging the status quo are Paul, Gravel, and Kucinich. They have more than just the highest bidder in mind.
In regards to this thread, I tried finding the original offending article at wired, no such luck, weird.
Dan keep up the excellent work, I don’t mind the political jabs, they are usually very apropos to the subject at hand.
@ shen – neither you nor Dilger can expect to make goofy political remarks in the context of a tech post and have people ignore it. If you put politics into your public writing, you are inviting people to comment. When they do, don’t get all whiny and start calling people names.
And you shouldn’t, btw, assume the political makeup of mac users…