Information Security News: 10 Tips for iPhone Users at DEFCON 17

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://wikee.iphwn.org/howto:iphones_at_defcon

iPhone Dev Team
2009/07/27 

This week, MuscleNerd and a few other unnamed dev team members will be 
at DEFCON 17 in Las Vegas. We'll of course be carrying our iPhones on us 
like last year. Bringing an iPhone to a conference packed with hackers 
has both benefits and risks. Here are 10 tips for iPhone users at a 
hacker conference (or any technical conference). Most of these tips 
apply to jailbroken devices, but some also apply to stock devices too.

1. Disable all your login cookies in Safari. If you use the hotel or 
   conference wifi, it is 100% guaranteed that your traffic will be 
   sniffed. If you allow a web site (like twitter.com) to store your 
   login info in a cookie, and if you connect to that site through a 
   normal http connection, your login info will be exposed. At the very 
   least, you'll end up on the Wall of Sheep. But you'll be giving up 
   your password to anyone else sniffing too.
   
2. Consider not using the hotel or conference wifi at all, especially if 
   you're getting 3G speeds anyway. Do not have your iPhone auto-connect 
   to known networks. If you're bringing a Mac to the conference and you 
   use wifi, at least set up your firewall properly. Turn off everything 
   in Settings→Sharing. Then in Settings→Security→Firewall, click “Set 
   access for specific services”→“Advanced”→“Enable Stealth Mode”.
   
3. Learn how to use tethering to avoid wifi on your laptop altogether 
   (and any hotel wifi charges too). By the way, the conference wifi 
   generally doesn't reach up to the hotel rooms, and vice versa.
   
4. If you're avoiding wifi, consider buying 3G Unrestrictor in Cydia. It 
   tricks applications that would otherwise insist that you be on wifi 
   into using your cellular data network instead. Such apps include 
   Skype, Slingplayer, iTunes, and many others.

[...]

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