Professional Cocoa® Application Security

INTRODUCTION

THE WORLD IN WHICH WE USE TODAY'S IMACS AND MACBOOKS has little in common with the world of the first Macintosh computer Steve Jobs unveiled in 1984. The idea that everybody would be using a computer at home and at work — and indeed on the road — with permanent connections to the rest of the world via the Internet would have been thought out of the question back then. Forget completely the idea that people could carry full-featured computer/telephone/music player/camera devices in their jeans pockets. Or that you would be able to use your laptop or even your mobile phone to organize your finances with your bank, buy the latest movies, and get on with your work while away from the office. Taken to the extreme now, such technology is actually starting to provide dynamic connections between the digital and physical world — for example allowing you to photograph a physical object and associate it with online content such as a shop store or reviews. This is undoubtedly convenient, but it also brings new risks that were unheard of when the computers, their operating systems, and many of their applications were designed.

The organization Fight Identity Theft (http://www.fightidentitytheft.com) claims that identity theft cost 8.4 million Americans a total of $49.3 billion in 2008. The impact on any individual victim can be ruinous. As a result, this and other "cybercrimes" receive a lot of coverage in the media. It's reported frequently that a company or government department ...