Listen to Kamala: Apple admits V.P.’s wariness justified, says AirPods vulnerable to hackers

Apple admits that the lowly AirPods can be hacked.  Why doesn’t the media admit that voting machines can be hacked?

“Vice President Kamala Harris was right to be concerned. Tech giant Apple acknowledged this week that its AirPods wireless headphones are vulnerable to hackers, years after Ms. Harris first caught grief for sticking with the old-fashioned wired headphones.

Ms. Harris’ aversion to Bluetooth-connected headphones over reported security concerns made her the subject of snide remarks in Washington during her first months in office.

But Cupertino, California-based Apple said on Tuesday it was correcting a flaw that hackers could use to gain access to users’ AirPods headphones that rely on wireless Bluetooth connectivity.

How many flaws are still in the AirPods and the voting machines?

Listen to Kamala: Apple admits V.P.’s wariness justified, says AirPods vulnerable to hackers

By Ryan Lovelace , The Washington Times, 6/27/24   https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jun/27/apple-says-its-airpods-headphones-are-vulnerable-t/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=manual&utm_campaign=evening&utm_term=evening&utm_content=standard&bt_ee=k7kggvqLx3jXe9%2BJp%2BVIEuPgcNAzJsDewlCKhLKuUr4z2p9CGzUCZXvlPIDMsCc%2B&bt_ts=1719528034388

Vice President Kamala Harris was right to be concerned. Tech giant Apple acknowledged this week that its AirPods wireless headphones are vulnerable to hackers, years after Ms. Harris first caught grief for sticking with the old-fashioned wired headphones.

Ms. Harris’ aversion to Bluetooth-connected headphones over reported security concerns made her the subject of snide remarks in Washington during her first months in office.

But Cupertino, California-based Apple said on Tuesday it was correcting a flaw that hackers could use to gain access to users’ AirPods headphones that rely on wireless Bluetooth connectivity.

“When your headphones are seeking a connection request to one of your previously paired devices, an attacker in Bluetooth range might be able to spoof the intended source device and gain access to your headphones,” Apple said on its website.

The company published a fix for the problem that Apple said will be automatically delivered to people’s AirPods when they are paired and within Bluetooth range of an iPhone or other Apple device.

Apple’s latest update is far from the first time it has been forced to admit hackers can eavesdrop on people using its AirPods devices. In April 2023, Apple issued an identical advisory to this week’s alert and warned of a similar vulnerability in AirPods. The following month, Apple released another security update for more wireless headphones.

The vice president’s security habits and aversion to Apple’s AirPods products made her the subject of mockery during her first year in the White House. In 2021, Politico depicted her as a Luddite for using wired headphones instead of AirPods like her husband, who the publication said had used AirPods for years without anxiety.

•  

“Should someone who travels with the nuclear football be spending time untangling her headphone wires?” the publication said.

The publication labeled her “Bluetooth-phobic” and cataloged several times she opted for wires, prompting outrage on social media from Ms. Harris’ defenders and others who shared Ms. Harris’ skepticism over the security of Apple’s tech.

Asked by the San Francisco Chronicle about the public debate raging over her headphone usage in December 2021, Ms. Harris responded, “Really?”

In the ensuing years, Apple has developed a range of new wearable products — and hackers have been busy.

For example, the company rolled out its augmented reality headset Apple Vision Pro in the U.S. earlier this year that Apple said was a “revolutionary spatial computer.”

The company said the 3D user interface would appear “magical” and allow people to control the system with their eyes and voice.

Anything man can make, man can break and cybersecurity researcher Ryan Pickren found a way to bypass the company’s security. He called his work the “world’s first spatial computing hack.”

Mr. Pickren said on his website that malicious websites can easily flood the headset with an arbitrary number of animated 3D objects.

“If the victim just views our website in Vision Pro, we can instantly fill their room with hundreds of crawling spiders and screeching bats! Freaky stuff,” Mr. Pickren said with images of spiders crawling over his office desk when viewed through the headset.

Apple acknowledged Mr. Pickren’s discovery last week and said it addressed the issue.