‘The World’s First iPhone Virus’ on the Loose

Yahoo News have announced that the world’s first iPhone virus is on the loose targeting iPhone users with cracked or jailbroken handsets and who have retained the default passwords (alpine). The virus, currently gone wild in Australia,  changes wallpapers to an image of 1980s pop star Rick Astley, and displays the message ‘Ikee is never gonna give you up’. According to Sophos security firm, the virus searches for other vulnerable iPhones on the mobile phone network and installs itself on them.

“Sophos researchers have traced the virus back to Ashley Towns, 21-year-old student from New South Wales. Towns admitted to releasing the worm on his Twitter page, saying that he did so because he found that 26 out of 27 accessible iPhones he had tested were vulnerable because they had not changed their passwords.”

iPhone users should there take greater care in ensuring that their smart-phones are secured as there may be an increase in similar attacks. Users of jailbroken iPhones should change their root password from “alpine” to something more secured. If you must connect to a Wi-Fi network, only do on a secured network. Finally, enable pass-code lock in order to prevent unauthorised access to your device.