Easy-to-hack MacBook

You should go back and read that again. They used a Mac in the example, but it also works on Windows and with the Linux drivers as well.

More so, it WAS NOT with the airport that comes with the mac. It was with a third party network card with drivers not made by Apple. Now think about it.. You MacBook Comes with and Airport card and there is no slot, like on the Pro version. So how can you use that card to be hacked? And even if you could, why would you? You have a non-hackable Apple airport already. Even if you had a macbook pro why would you install this cheap third party airport card?

Please go read that artical again.

Are our MacBooks under this terrible threat?

NO!

It was, to put it bluntly a SCAM. This had nothing to do with a MacBook being vulnerable at all. It was two hackers that wanted thier 15 minutes of fame.

Here are some related links:
Link One
Link Two
Link Three
And finally Link Four

I am not concerned about the wireless security of my MacBook at all.
🙂
Greg

For now let's just say that this report left more questions than it did answers. Was the hacked Macintosh using its internal WiFi or a third party WiFi card? There are conflicting claims. Was the Mac using Apple's WiFi drivers or third party drivers? Again, conflicting claims. Was the entire thing a scam from start to finish? Some are claiming exactly that.

The process that has been described is theoretically possible but is the Apple hardware and/or software vulnerable to this threat? No word from Apple but that shouldn't be taken as proof either way. Apple speaks only when Apple is ready to speak - the general rule of thumb is until Apple has a definitive answer there is no comment.

Since this article appeared there have been claims and counter claims, lawyerly obfuscations in the guise of commentary, and the only real truth is that suddenly the people who claim to have hacked the computer are now as silent as Apple.

This is the subject of a massive thread at slashdot and I suggest reading Daring Fireball for a complete ripping apart of the claims. The hack as demonstrated was fake; they used a third party card and third party drivers and some other stuff which they happened to put in a MacBook to draw attention. Earlier this week, Johnny Cache came out and said some stuff about Apple coming down on them and intimating they had a hack that works on Apple's stuff - he gave enough detail to say the hack demonstrated relied on a flaw in Centrino technology. He did not, however, say he had a hack. He did not say Apple told him not to talk about it. He really didn't say anything much.