Earlier this year, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered a security flaw that leaves Apple devices such as iPhones and iPads vulnerable to hackers through a simple charger.
Billy Lau and his colleagues demonstrated their findings at the Black Hat hacking convention in Las Vegas this week.
Apple Inc have said that the next software update for iPhones and iPads will fix this security flaw. “We would like to thank the researchers for their valuable input,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said.
During their demonstration at the Black Hat convention, the three computer scientists plugged an iPhone into a custom-built charger that was able to attack
iOS devices via a tiny Linux computer that sits inside the charger.
The possibility for criminals is to build viruses that can give them remote control of a device. This would allow them to take screen shots for stealing banking passwords and credit card numbers. Lau said, “It can become a spying tool.”
He also said that devices which run the Android operating system are unaffected because they warn the user when devices are plugged into a computer, even if it appears to be a charging station.
Apple’s software update for iOS 7 will now cause a pop up message alerting the user that they are connecting to a computer and not a charging station.
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