Apple Takes Its First Steps at Black Hat

The 2012 edition of the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas has welcomed a new entrant, Apple. The opportunity for the U.S. company to return to the security of the mobile platform iOS. But if group participation is seen as positive because of its weight in personal computing, some have lamented the lack of interaction with Apple’s other participants.
This is an appointment in the world of computer security. Each year in Las Vegas held the Black Hat conference, to the delight of professional soldiers and hackers. For the 2012 edition, the organizers have hosted for the first time a representative from Apple came about safety of IOS, the mobile operating system from Cupertino.

In charge of security software from Apple, Dallas De Atley emphasized during his presentation on the group’s philosophy to the efforts of others to undermine its OS Like the two faces of one coin, computer security must act on two fronts: to address the computer processing (software) but also on the architecture on which they occur (the hardware).

“When we developed the iPhone, we realized that there were aspects which made it quite different from a computer. Safety is architecture: you must build from the very beginning This is not just a few codes sprinkled over the finished product, “he said. But if the conference lasted an hour and allowed to address several technical issues, some participants remained unsatisfied.

Quoted by The Register, one of the experts regretted that De Atley Dallas did not stay longer to answer questions from the audience. “It was one of the worst presentations I’ve never seen at the Black Hat. Nothing new, no information and no questions.” Many argued that Apple has only recycle his guide (. Pdf) Safety iOS unveiled in May 2012.

An exchange with the participants would have been instructive, especially since Apple products are among those that sell best. In fact its popularity, but also because the system is locked, IOS is the target of many hackers but also to people with bad intentions. And while each new version is more robust than the previous, the platform continues to be regularly jailbreaikée.

Some may say that this participation in the Black Hat 2012 was a new experience for Apple, and that one should probably not expect to see the company tangle with issues of a room full of specialists, given the importance the group attaches to its brand image. Perhaps the Cupertino company will prove she’s more talkative next year, if she returns.