You May Need To De-Worm Your iPhone
November 23, 2009 by Ramon B. Nuez Jr.
Filed under Featured Content, Mobile
So you thought you knew better than Apple. I mean, all you wanted to do was to install a few third-party apps, drop that cool wall paper and have bragging rights over hacking the iPhone. Whatever your motivation was you have successfully jail-broken the iPhone – congratulations. With that comes a degree of satisfaction and social praise - well that is until you realize that you have a virus. One of the first reported iPhone worms to be more precise. You see by jailbraking your iPhone you inadvertently reset the root password. This password is well-known which allows hackers to exploit the unprotected iPhone.
According to the anti-virus community, there are three known worms:
Ikee
- Changes your standard wallpaper.
- You are infected if your wallpaper has a picture of Rick Astley and underneath the text reads “ikee is never gonna give you up.”
iPhone/Privacy.A
- It goes through all of your personal information.
- It doesn’t leave anything noticable on your iPhone itself. It will install itself on a computer and scan all wireless networks for a vulnerable iPhones.
Third worm (yet unnamed)
- It copies your personal data and redirects online banking customers of a Dutch bank to a fake phishing Web site.
- If your iPhone’s battery life has been strangely short your iPhone might have the third worm.
If you think you are infected please read: How To De-Worm Your iPhone.
If you have not jailbroken your iPhone – then Apple says you have nothing to worry about. Obviously, nothing is fool-proof. If you think that your iPhone may have a virus – take it into your local Apple store. It’s better to be safe than infected.
Author: Ramon B. Nuez Jr. (53 Articles)
Ramon is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com/ramon-nuez). He covers the net neutrality debates, broadband ubiquity and the emergence of new media. Ramon has also guest lectured at the NYU School of Continuing Education -- on social media, social networks and new media. In collaboration with Zev Green of Co-Founder of GoFamous and Robert Holmes of RobbeTheGeek.Com -- Ramon is producing a podcast called New Media Brief. In this podcast the three will be discussing topics ranging from social media to new media to personal technology. Ramon is a firm advocate of Charity: Water. He strongly believes in Scott Harrison’s message and purpose. In 2009 he ran a personal but small campaign to raise money for Charity: Water.