By Nicolaas Du Plessis July 18, 2013 8:00 AM - Source:
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http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apples-iOS-7-Lightning-cable-security-check-hacked-by-a-Chinese-firm_id44527
Apple's "third party manufacturer prevention" security for its Lightning Cables has been circumvented... permanently.
Apple changed its iconic dock cable with the launch of the iPhone 5 to the "Lightning Cable." Apart from the cable now being reversible, Apple added an extra layer of security to their cable, so that for an accessory to work with the iPhone, the company would need a digital certificate or authorization from Apple. Not only is this massive pain for consumers (and a source of profit for Apple), but it prevents budget versions of the cable and accessories from flooding the market, while giving Apple leverage over the manufacturers. This is why the Chinese firm iPhone5Mod set out to hack this digital restriction, and they have finally done it.
The security circumvention comes at the hands of a hardware change, meaning that Apple cannot simply reverse engineer the hack using the software itself. Previously, the iPhone 5 on iOS 7 beta would give an annoying pop-up if the accessory did not have the authorization, but now cheaper cables can start pouring in from China, India and the Middle East. This is not the first time iPhone5Mod has angered Apple, having previously engineered cases that would transform an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 5. Unfortunately for the multinational giant, there is nothing they can do about it at the moment, as copyright and patent laws are treated differently in China. To show how different the cables now work from the native Apple versions, iPhone5Mod has released an instructional video, seen below.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CeIRBOZy2kg
