Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »October 02, 2008 — IDG News Service —
Apple's iPhone has two design flaws that could pose potential security problems, according to a researcher.
The first one concerns the iPhone's e-mail application, which automatically downloads images within an e-mail, said Aviv Raff, a security researcher, on Thursday.
That's problematic because the image will refer back to a server-side script when it is downloaded, indicating to the sender that the e-mail has been opened and the e-mail address is valid. The address can then be spammed.
E-mail applications usually are configured to block images from untrusted sources to prevent the problem, Raff said. He suggests that users avoid using the e-mail application or be careful when clicking on links in an e-mail that comes from an untrusted source.
The second design flaw is how the iPhone's e-mail application displays URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). Messages can be shown in plain text or HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). When in HTML mode, a user can get an e-mail where the text of the link is different than the actual link. The true link can be displayed by hovering over the text, and a pop-up window reveals the URL. But the problem is the pop-up window truncates the URL since there isn't enough space on the screen.
An attacker could create a Web site with a long subdomain in order to fool a user into thinking it's a legitimate site. In fact, a Web site designed to trick a person into revealing personal information, known as a phishing site, Raff said.
After the bad link is served up in the Safari Web browser, the user may still only see a fraction of the URL. If the address bar is clicked in mobile Safari, the cursor jumps to the end of the URL, so a person must scroll back to see the URL in its entirety, Raff wrote on his blog.
Neither Apple's mobile Safari nor the desktop version of the browser have a phishing filter.
Raff said he notified Apple more than two months ago about the design flaws. The company told Raff they were working on fixes but hadn't said when those fixes would be released.
Raff said he decided to go public with the information since Apple has since released at least three iPhone updates but hasn't addressed the issues.
"I think they put their own users at much more risk by not fixing this," Raff said in an interview. "At least now the users who read this will know to be careful. It's only a matter of time until the bad guys will find this anyway."