Apple released iOS 9 this week. Hurray! But some (most) of you are thinking it might be wise to watch from the sidelines on this and let the bleeding edgers endure the initial onslaught of headaches that we all know can result from a software upgrade of this significance. There’s certainly a case to be made for this more circumspect approach.
However, if you are really concerned with caution, you might want to think again. The reason is that iOS 9 fixes over 100 security vulnerabilities that are lying around inside the bowels of its predecessor. That’s enough bugs to call in an exterminator, which is what iOS 9 could be.
One of the more interesting scenarios involves an exploit that abuses AirDrop to install malware on a mobile device. Here’s a video that demonstrates the attack.
Of course, with new mobile OS’s come the possibility of even newer bugs, but the point is that the cat is out of the bag on the old ones. The bad guys know about them and will be looking to take advantage. The new bugs are yet to be discovered.
That may not be the most comforting thought but look at it this way. If you knew there were copies of the keys to your house be circulated among the cat burglar community, would you want to sit tight and hope none of them figured out where you lived or change the locks? New locks still might be able to be picked but at least you make the job harder for the bad guys.
Inside Internet Security 