Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Siri – Can She Spill Your Secrets? By Default, Yes.
November 7, 2011
The wonderful Canadian blog SLAW (ok, I'm prejudiced, John and I write for it) recently carried an excellent article by our friend and IT/infosec expert Ben Schorr. As Ben points out, the feature of the iPhone 4S that everyone is excited about is Siri, the voice-enabled personal assistant.
Siri can do some cool things – she can direct you to the nearest gas station, read you your e-mails and help you remember the coffee shop you liked in Seattle the last time you visited – ah, the wonders of GPS. Unfortunately, Siri has no loyalty – if someone else gets possession of your phone, Siri will obligingly read them your texts or e-mails – or send text and e-mails that appear to come from you. This is true EVEN if you have your phone locked with a PIN.
This recently discovered security flaw can be corrected, but you must take the affirmative step of disabling Siri when the phone is locked – and how many users are going to do that? Unless you take that step, be wary of what you share with the faithless Siri!
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