Patching Phones and Devices

Earlier this year, there was a vulnerability that hacking groups were using to crack into Apple devices. They could send an iMessage to an iPhone, it didn’t have to say anything in the message, but there was a zip file in it. When zip files are being texted to you via iMessage, the way Apple devices process them is by scanning it to see what the contents are before the owner opens it, so it can be displayed. What Apple didn’t know at the time, was that when the scan happened, there was a script within that would tell the phone to give them permission or access or to run another program that would leave your whole phone open to the hackers who sent it. They could access your camera, your photos, your microphone, see what apps you’re running, etc. This was used quite a bit for tracking people and left a lot of people extremely vulnerable. Eventually, through enough people having this problem, Apple was notified and they released a patch (an update) to fix the issue.

The lesson of this story is that it is incredibly important to patch your devices. Update your phones, update your computers, your tablets, even your IoT devices. No company is perfect, no programmer is perfect, no device is perfect. As time goes on, vulnerabilities are found in any software or firmware and when they are found, the manufacturer must send out a way for those problems to be fixed. Patching, or updating, is the simple way of securing your device over and over throughout time. If you don’t keep up with your updates, you are leaving holes that hackers or scammers can take advantage of, leaving you unprotected.

If you are struggling to patch your device or run the latest update, we can help you out. Cybersecurity is always growing and evolving as new vulnerabilities are being created. With so many people being taken advantage of through these vulnerabilities every year, we want to help you be proactive so that you are not one of them. Call us today at 855-728-6824 or stop by our storefront so one of our technicians to take care of you.