Page 23 - atoday

TECHNOLOGY A23
Monday 7 March 2016

Does an extremist’s iPhone contain a “cyber pathogen”?

BRANDON BAILEY Apple has resisted calls to the county’s infrastructure? This Feb. 23, 2016, file photo shows a New York police officer
AP Technology Writer help unlock the phone, ar- Did he hack into that infra- stands outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue while monitoring
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A guing that building a soft- structure? a demonstration, in New York.
local prosecutor has of- ware tool to override the I don’t know. In order for
fered an unusual justifica- phone’s security features me to really put that issue Associated Press
tion for forcing Apple to would render other iPhones to rest, there is one piece of
help hack an iPhone used vulnerable to criminals and evidence that would abso- curity firm. He said Apple’s ment that’s designed so us-
by a San Bernardino mass government authorities lutely let us know that, and iPhone operating system is ers can’t easily introduce
killer: around the world. that would be the iPhone.” a relatively closed environ- their own programs.
The phone might have The argument drew con-
been “used as a weapon” Investigators, meanwhile, demnation from one
to introduce malicious soft- are eager to see if the software expert who has
ware to county computer phone used by shooter signed a brief in support of
systems. Syed Farook — one issued Apple’s position.
San Bernardino County by Farook’s employer, the “Ramos’s statements are
District Attorney Michael county health department not only misleading to
Ramos acknowledged to — contains any useful in- the court, but amount to
The Associated Press that formation about other sus- blatant fear mongering,”
there’s no evidence of ma- pects. independent software re-
licious software in the coun- But the idea that Farook searcher Jonathan Zdzi-
ty’s computer network. But might have used the arski wrote in a post on his
he added, “I wouldn’t call phone to transmit a “lying- personal blog .
it a total hypothetical.” dormant cyber pathogen” Other security experts who
Computer security experts into county data systems is haven’t taken sides also
say the prospect is unlikely. a new one. discounted the scenario.
By late Friday, the prosecu- Ramos’ office, however, “It’s definitely possible,
tor’s claim had sparked cited it in a court filing technically,
a wave of social media Thursday among several but it doesn’t seem to me
postings, many of which other reasons to support at first glance to be likely,”
mocked the DA’s use of the the government’s position. said David Meltzer, a com-
non-technical term “cyber “This was a county em- puter security expert and
pathogen” to describe the ployee that murdered 14 chief research officer at
supposed malware. people and injured 22,” Tripwire, a commercial IT se-
Ramos said. “Did he use

Inventor of modern email, Ray Tomlinson, dies

An undated photo provided by Raytheon BBN Technologies Email existed in a limited At the time, few people he announced it via his
capacity before Tomlinson had personal computers. own invention by sending a
shows Raymond Tomlinson. in that electronic messages The popularity of personal message to co-workers ex-
could be shared amid mul- email wouldn’t take off plaining how to use it.
SARAH SKIDMORE SELL Associated Press tiple people within a lim- until years later and would “I’m often asked ‘Did I
er, died Saturday. ited framework. But until his ultimately become an inte- know what I was doing?”
invention in 1971 of the first gral part of modern life. Tomlinson said in his speech
AP Business Writer Raytheon Co., his employ- network person-to-person “It wasn’t an assignment when he was inducted into
email, there was no way to at all, he was just fooling the Internet Hall of Fame.
Raymond Tomlinson, the er, confirmed his death; the send something to a spe- around; he was looking for “The answer is: Yeah I knew
cific person at a specific something to do with AR- exactly what I was doing. I
inventor of modern email details were not immedi- address. PANET,” Raytheon spokes- just had no notion whatso-
Tomlinson wrote and sent woman Joyce Kuzman ever about what the ulti-
and a technological lead- ately available. the first email on the AR- said. mate impact would be.”
PANET system, a computer The first email was sent be- Tomlinson is the one who
network that was created tween two machines that chose the “@” symbol to
for the U.S. government were side-by-side. Tomlin- connect the username with
that is considered a precur- son said in a company in- the destination address
sor to the Internet. Tomlin- terview that the test mes- and it has now become a
son also contributed to the sages were “entirely forget- cultural icon.
network’s development, table and I have, therefore, “It is a symbol that proba-
among numerous other forgotten them.” But when bly would have gone away
pioneering technologies in he was satisfied that the if not for email,” Kuzman
the programing world. program seemed to work, said.