12/01/09
[ Back to Blog » ]
Latest jailbreak iPhone malware deemed serious
Over the past couple of years, jailbroken iPhones have become as common as the phones themselves for users of all ages. But, performing a jailbreak in Australia or the Netherlands has opened the phones up to a new virus, it has been reported. Unlike the RickRolling virus affecting jailbroken iPhones, this new malware has the potential to spread much wider, hack into online bank accounts and set up a PC-type botnet, according to the blog. The virus, which attacks only jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches, is designed to scan IP addresses for vulnerable devices on the Optus mobile network in Australia as well as UPC in the Netherlands and T-Mobile in several countries worldwide, according to the blog of Chester Wisniewski, a senior Security Advisor at Sophos Canada It is recommended that people with infected iPhones and iPod Touch devices restore them back to Apple's most recent firmware update. For now, there is no other way to fix the problem. Jailbreaking, a hack that has been around for about two years, enables iPhone and iPod Touch users to download applications unavailable through Apple's App Store.