While most hackers won’t spend their time writing malicious code that attacks Mac OS X due to the relatively small user base, iPhone’s increasing popularity could change all that and place OS X into a higher risk category.

Charles Miller, a security researcher at Independent Security Evaluators, who first discovered an iPhone vulnerability told CRN that “Apple has essentially gotten away with weak security because attackers haven’t been particularly interested in the Mac; OS X simply hasn’t gotten the kind of scrutiny that Windows has faced for years. That’s starting to change, however, and the iPhone’s high profile will only speed things up.”

Since the launch of iPhone a month ago, the “phone-computer” gadget or shall I say the “computer-phone” gadget has attracted the attention of tech-savvy users including hackers and security researchers.

The popularity of iPhone has encouraged hackers to pull apart the device and find flaws in its operating system and software, which is mostly based on OS X. And since iPhone and its software are less complex compared with OS X, then iPhone hacking could pave the way for hacking Mac OS X.

“I’m guessing there will be more activity for the next six months on the iPhone then there will be on the Macs or OS X,” Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer for anti-virus firm F-Secure said.

Clearly, as iPhone and Apple’s other products continue to gain in popularity, the company will have to focus more on security.

Related:

Entry was posted on Sunday, August 5th, 2007 at 9:11 pm under Apple, Security.

Read more entries by Ruben Francia.
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