Bluetooth inherently unsafe?

[htmlmasterdave]

I was reading this article about bluetooth in Scientific American... apparently it's fairly easy to hack into things like cell phones and get their information without anyone knowing... is this a fudamental flaw with bluetooth these days?

 

[addragyn]

No BT is not inherently unsafe.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Is it easy to make secure under OS X? I'm most likely buying an ibook soon, and I might want to get the built in bluetooth... any thoughts?

 

[oneshot47]

Summary for those who didnt read the article: hackers can use a laptop to convince bt devices to connect to the laptop and access all of the data stored on it. Also they can access the modem and basicall phreak the cell phone, ie listen in on conversations, or use it to place expensive calls.

 

[addragyn]

Well you can just turn it off or disable discoverable mode.

FYI - Amazon has a great deal on the iBooks right now
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...0&threadid=1421437

 

[addragyn]

Go to xlr8yourmac.com for direction on how to add internal BT to an iBook.

 

[LtPage1]

unless youre the target of an international band of technologically-savvy jewel thieves, I think your cell phone is safe.

 

[addragyn]

maybe alll his/her diamonds are really fake or synthetic!

 

[jsbush]

I'm not to scared of someone connecting to my bluetooth mouse and stealing info form it.