If you have an iPhone, you likely already have heard about the latest entry in the Farmville clone market, We Rule from Ngmoco.

The game is addictive as mainstream MMORPG‘s such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft but this one happens to run on your iPhone and is free to play.

Having spent some time playing We Rule I was motivated to optimize my progression by unlocking more crops, buildings and decorations by earning gold and XP. So, I started a spreadsheet to figure out which crops are the best gold makers and xp earners.

Bottom Line: The shorter the crop takes to grow, the more Gold and XP it earns.

While Corn and Wheat are technically the best crops, the upkeep is too much. Rice is a favorite if you are willing to start up the game every 15 minutes.

UPDATE: Added new Magic Crops

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1. iPhone: Harbinger of Doomsday Malware

As Information Security professionals must focus on threats they are charged to defend against, it’s beneficial for them to acknowledge what the attack vectors of tomorrow might be to better prepare for them today.

Proposition: iPhone user? You’re pwned.

Yes, that is quite a blanket statement. Give me a minute to back up that statement with my evidence.

Let’s start with motivations:

• Authors of malware (malicious software) do so to make money by capturing your resources (bandwidth or storage)
• Malware programmers will choose a target based on the amount of bang for their buck (or time)

Some statistics:

44 million Apple iPhones have been sold to date (and that's not counting iPod Touches)

iPod Touch sales now outpace iPhone sales, so let's assume a one for one iPod Touch sold for each iPhone sold to date. Windows XP was released in 2001 and hit 153 million units within the first 3 years of it's release

Arbitrary remote code execution:
• Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message
• Playing a maliciously crafted mp4, AAC or MP3 audio file
• Visiting a maliciously crafted website
• Viewing a maliciously crafted PNG or TIFF image
• Viewing a maliciously crafted MPEG-4 video
• Opening a maliciously crafted PDF file
• Accessing a maliciously crafted FTP server

Interception & redirection:
• Susceptible to DNS cache poisoning and may return forged information
• Predictable TCP initial sequence numbers may lead to TCP spoofing or session hijacking
• Look-alike characters in a URL could be used to masquerade a website
• A remote attacker may cause a device reset (via crafted ICMP Ping)

Breach of Privacy:
• Apps can read another Apps data
• User names and passwords in URLs may be disclosed to linked sites

Unauthorized Local access:
• An unauthorized user may bypass the Passcode Lock and launch iPhone applications via Emergency Call
• Deleted email messages may still be visible through a Spotlight search
• Passwords may be made visible via undo
• A person with physical access to a locked device may be able to access the user’s data

Now here comes the real shocker…

In nearly 3 years of availability, the Apple iPhone OS has had 104 security vulnerabilities identified and patched, while Microsoft Windows XP had 86 security vulnerabilities patched in it’s first 3 years

In the same amount of time after release, the iPhone had 18 more security patches than Windows XP did. To skew the number even further, 27 (twenty seven!) of those Windows XP Patches were replaced by another patch so technically there were only 59 patches for Windows XP in the first three years.

Conclusion 2: The iPhone is a more vulnerable target than infant Windows XP was (pre SP2!)

Finally, let’s review what sensitive personal information is stored on these devices and is at risk of being leaked.

• GPS Location
• Safari History
• AutoComplete data
• Call History
• YouTube History
• Emails
• Text Messages
• Address Book
• Pictures
• Name
• Phone Number
• Birthday

Conclusion 3: the iPhone is a sexy, well-organized, treasure trove of personal information, ripe for theft or abuse


This would suggest that the early iPhone 0-day attacks will be spear phishing high profile users such as celebrities, business leaders or government officials.

What do you think?

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1. A Romance Flowchart: When Is It Inappropriate to Use Your iPhone?
2. Pretty graphs for the malware detection (ftw?)
3. Windows Tune Up! (type: Auto-magic)

With all the gadget websites slamming the iPad for touting less features or design than their Dream Apple device, it got me thinking what type of consumer would be interested in the upcoming Apple iPad.

Question: Who’s gonna buy this thing???
Answer: Someone interested in an e-book reader.

Based on the limited information Apple has made available thus far, the following price comparison can be made:

Obviously the iPad is capable of much more than the Kindle, but go back to who’s going to buy this thing. Perhaps an iPad is just the Christmas present Grandma was looking for? Of course, that’s assuming she’s hip with the latest in gadget trends. If not, she may appreciate that Kindle at least 2.5x more.

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1. Amazon Deal: 90% off HD-DVDs
2. Minority Report Computer is Real
3. Barnes & Noble Nook Review: Pretty Good