Apple's iPhone Gets Hacked
The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.
It didn't take long. The iPhone has been hacked, according to the New York Times. A team of computer security consultants said they could take control of a person's iPhone through a WiFi connection or by tricking users into going to a Web site that contains malicious code.
Although Apple built considerable security measures into the device, according to Charles Miller, the main analyst for the firm, "Once you did manage to find the hole, you were in complete control."
So far, there's no evidence that the flaw has been exploited, and the firm generously offered to sell Apple a plug-in to fix the leak. Which would ease our worries completely, except Miller is described as "a former employee of the National Security Agency," and we all know how hesitant that agency has been to spy on American citizens.
Turkey's Ruling Party Gets Roasted
Turkey's Islamic-inspired governing party's harder-than-expected pummeling of the secular opposition in Sunday's parliamentary elections topped the Wall Street Journal's newsbox and, at least visually, the front pages of the The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times today.
While the LA Times seemed most concerned about of the "specter of bitter quarrels over the feared erosion of Turkey's secular traditions" that would arise from the ruling party's new mandate, the WSJ focused on the silver lining, emphasizing that "the wide margin of victory paves the way for more pro-Western and business friendly policies."
Meanwhile, the New York Times asks, but doesn't answer, the question at the heart of it all: "Can an Islamic-oriented government that is popularly election be democratic and aligned with the West?"
Perhaps it was the absence of an answer to this question that relegated the story, teased with a colorful lead photograph women in headscarves waving celebratory flags, to A3.
Iraq Update: Not So Fast
Meanwhile, there remains a little less than nothing to celebrate in Iraq. In the latest wholly depressing dispatch, a top U.S. training official told USA Today that "military offensives and a changed focus on increasing security" (Um, does this mean we weren't focusing on security before?) have slowed the training of Iraqi forces. Admitting the news was "a hard pill to swallow," the general said American troops would need to remain in Iraq for at least two more years to prevent "a bloodbath."
Democrats: The New Money Party?
Downers like this do have an upside – if you are Democrat, reports the Wall Street Journal. With more than a year to go before the elections, Democratic candidates have raised $100 million more in campaign contributions than Republicans, putting them on track to win the money race for the White House and Congress for the first time in recorded campaign finance history.
The reason? "Democrats have taken the lead by exploiting widespread disapproval of President Bush and the Iraq war to develop a more robust online network of new, small donors, as well as to gain traction with deep-pocketed business contributors." That, and Democrats are way better at surfing (and milking) those wild and crazy "internets."
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