From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
Subject: [WSFA] FYI: New Threat Can Auto-Brick Apple Devices
To: "gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org" <gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org>,
 WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>,
 WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>, bsfsgeneral <bsfsgeneral at bsfs.org>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2016 20:56:00 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

And Krebs, whose blog this is from, is *very* respectable and knowledgeable.

Excerpt:
If you use an Apple iPhone, iPad or other iDevice, now would be an excellent
time to ensure that the machine is running the latest version of Apple\222s
mobile operating system \227 version 9.3.1. Failing to do so could expose your
devices to automated threats capable of rendering them unresponsive and
perhaps forever useless.

On Feb. 11, 2016, researcher Zach Straley posted a Youtube video exposing his
startling and bizarrely simple discovery: Manually setting the date of your
iPhone or iPad all the back to January. 1, 1970 will permanently brick the
device (don\222t try this at home, or against frenemies!).

Now that Apple has patched the flaw that Straley exploited with his fingers,
researchers say they\222ve proven how easy it would be to automate the attack
over a network, so that potential victims would need only to wander within
range of a hostile wireless network to have their pricey Apple devices turned
into useless bricks.
<...>
For example, to use Starbuck\222s free Wi-Fi service, you\222ll have to connect to a
network called \223attwifi\224. But once you\222ve done that, you won\222t everhave to
manually connect to a network called \223attwifi\224 ever again. The next time you
visit a Starbucks, just pull out your iPad and the device automagically connects.

 From an attacker\222s perspective, this is a golden opportunity. Why? He only
needs to advertise a fake open network called \223attwifi\224 at a spot wherelarge
numbers of computer users are known to congregate. Using specialized hardware
to amplify his Wi-Fi signal, he can force many users to connect to his (evil)
\223attwifi\224 hotspot. From there, he can attempt to inspect, modify or redirect
any network traffic for any iPads or other devices that unwittingly connectto
his evil network.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/04/new-threat-can-auto-brick-apple-devices/>

         mark