Arbor: iPhone to be hacked in 2008

According to Arbor's annual vulnerability forecast, the year 2008 is the year that will see the iPhone hacked.  The most expected way of doing this is drive-by attacks, which are essentially seemingly harmless files, such as pictures, embedded with malware. While this may be the means of hacking the iPhone, the motivation is, as Arbor suggests, the desire to be first and thus notorious.

"Whoever gets there first and manages to hack the Apple iPhone will gain notoriety among his or her peers, and that's worth a lot in their eyes. The prevalence of the iPhone means that there is lots of prestige involved - it's just too juicy to resist," said Jose Nazario of Arbor.

Arbor encourages iPhone users to download the latest firmware and security updates, as well as to avoid suspicious websites.

The hacking of the iPhone is only one forecast made in Arbor's forecast: "2007 was the year of the browser exploit, the data breach, spyware and the storm worm. We expect 2008 to be the year of the Apple iPhone attack, the Chinese hacker, P2P network spammers and the hijacking of the Storm botnet. Online fraud is soaring and security attacks are now being used in countless and ever more sophisticated ways to both steal and launder money," Nazario said.

The future will show...