Just How Bad Is Apple's OS X Security Flaw? - Bloomberg

The first people to discover this and comment on it.

Tell us how you came to realize this was an issue.

Thank you for having me.

What happened earlier this weekend, some researchers discovered an update to the iphone was addressing a very sensitive area of the security features of the iphone.

Shortly in their analysis, they hinted at and wrote about the fact that it might be broader.

So i spent some time looking at what apps might be affected by this vulnerability.

So the mail app, the calendar, some of the other apps on the mac os will be honorable to this issue.

What exactly does this mean for me as a user?

Do you know the lock icon you see when you login to your bank or e-mail?

That is supposed to protect the communications and e-mails, your passwords and bank information from eavesdroppers.

Whether it's someone at the wi-fi cafe or the nsa.

What researchers have demonstrated is the protocol doesn't actually work for apple devices and mac computers.

To my knowledge, did desktop is still vulnerable.

If you are using the computer at a wi-fi cafe, someone can hijack your communication and monitor it and all of your e-mails and passwords, etc.

Has apple's reaction to this been different from other companies and could they have done anything better?

It a little surprising they released emergency updates without releasing it for the mac operating system.

Given the sophistication of people working on this issue and the current climate -- you just had mike rogers speak -- given the current climate it is surprising they would not think to patch the system immediately rather than just trickle out one of eight after the other.

What about the fact they released the update without a context?

I probably would not have downloaded the update for a few more days if i wasn't in the know.

I'm a tech journalist.

The question of transparency around these issues is a huge one.

The fact they don't notify users that there's a major vulnerability seems really shocking.

This thing called security bio security, just trying to slip it in without anybody noticing.

On a scale of one to 10, how big a deal is this security problem?

This is a huge deal.

The underlying security transports for product updates and passwords that make up all the communications are exposed.

Thank you so much for sharing that update with us.

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