Apple has warned iPhone owners on numerous occasions that jailbreaking the iPhone could lead to major security risks, with a handful of Australian iPhone owners finding out the hard way.
The first iPhone worm, "ikee," pops up showing the words "ikee is never going to give you up", in reference to pop sensation Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Astley was popular in the 1980s, and vanished in 1990, but reappeared as an internet sensation in the "rickrolling" online meme in 2007.
ikee was first introduced last Wednesday by Ashley Towns, an Australian programmer who intended for his worm to be a prank -- and a lesson for people who decided to jailbreak their phones. He intended to infect 100 iPhones, but it remains unknown how many phones were actually infected.
"I'd say it was a worm," said Charlie Miller, a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee known for hacking Apple products, including the iPhone and Mac. "It spreads, and it executes remote code, so it's a worm.
Miller also recommends that anyone with an iPhone should "change the default password of the SSH (secure shell) Unix utility," Computerworld notes in its article. Furthermore, anyone who has been infected simply needs to change the SSH password and remove several files from the hijacked iPhone.
It wasn't long ago when jailbroken iPhones were considered just as secure as regular iPhones, but that has changed as Apple increases iPhone security.
Although Apple will continue to plead with iPhone owners not to jailbreak the devices, and there are obvious security risks, it's likely many phone owners will continue to hack their phones to allow for additional features.
