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To: zeugma
So, are you saying then, that a windows (or Linux, or OSX computer for that matter) has a security hole if you can boot off a CD and access the data from the hard disk?

Let me enter a password on my computer, and my BIOS. And I'll step away. Then you can have at it. See if you can copy the entire contents of the hard disk - without opening the computer - in a matter of 30 seconds. See if you can even boot off a CD (which is turned off in the BIOS).

Seem there's no "booting" or "hacking"; it's just plugging the phone in and it appears just like a USB memory stick. All security is bypassed BY THE IPHONE. No need to try to do anything more difficult than insert a cable.

72 posted on 06/25/2010 10:21:46 PM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the Sting of Truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: PugetSoundSoldier
Let me enter a password on my computer, and my BIOS. And I'll step away. Then you can have at it. See if you can copy the entire contents of the hard disk - without opening the computer - in a matter of 30 seconds. See if you can even boot off a CD (which is turned off in the BIOS).

 Wow. So you're saying having a password on a phone is equivalent to a BIOS-level password? Wouldn't it be a lot more similar to having a password on your windows user name? Come on, get real here. Personally, I'd like to see an addional bios-type password on devices like this, but it just isn't the way things are done. Go ahead. put a bios password on your computer. If I have physical access, I'll just pop the drive out, copy it to another device, and peruse it at me leisure. After putting it back in your PC, you'll never know the difference, as nothing has been changed.

You seem like you're grasping at straws here, trying to equate the fact that someone with phisical access to hardware compares with remotely executable viruses, worms, and trojans that are endemic in the ms-windows world. Give it up. You're not dealing with someone with only passing familiarity with computers and how they operate.

Seem there's no "booting" or "hacking"; it's just plugging the phone in and it appears just like a USB memory stick. All security is bypassed BY THE IPHONE. No need to try to do anything more difficult than insert a cable.

Which is pretty mcuh comparable in 99% of the cases out there with your average PC. Pop a CD in, fire it up, and copy off what you want. As I mentioned before, the miniscule fraction of people who even bother with a bios password are completely subverted by someone with a screwdriver and a little time. The only real defense to someone with physical access to a computer is to completely encrypt your data partition. These days, given the power in your average computer, that is completely feasable, but only the paranoid do that because it is a hassle.  Some companies require that kind of thing on laptops these days, but it is, again, the exception, not the rule, and most crypto, as implemented is pretty piss-poor anyway.

Sorry, but the real world refutes the notion that you are trying to make.

77 posted on 06/25/2010 11:20:55 PM PDT by zeugma (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam)
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