The problem is that laptops tend to have a lot more sensitive data on them and a lot more power so the potential is far worse. It must be noted that the claim is that this sort of problem affects all laptops including Apple ones.

The video shows Ellch and Maynor targeting a specific security flaw in the Macbook's wireless "device driver," the software that allows the internal wireless card to communicate with the underlying OS X operating system. While those device driver flaws are particular to the Macbook -- and presently not publicly disclosed -- Maynor said the two have found at least two similar flaws in device drivers for wireless cards either designed for or embedded in machines running the Windows OS. Still, the presenters said they ultimately decided to run the demo against a Mac due to what Maynor called the "Mac user base aura of smugness on security."

The key, as the blogger notes, is that the attacks are at a very, very low level. That is to say in the network driver, a piece of code that runs as part of the core OS. It therefore means that anything above the OS such as traditional virus and firewall programs are useless and means that the laptop need not actually be connected to a wireless LAN to be vulnerable. Just having the interface searching for a LAN to connect to is sufficient.

What the blogger doesn't mention is that the same holes could well apply to WiFi base-stations. That probably concerns me even more because a base station vulnerability means that any user who uses that BS is laying himself open to attack.