The weekend before November 8, 2009 the first active iPhone worm was found by researchers at cybersecurity firms Sophos and F-Secure. The worm was spreading among iPhone users in Australia. The worm would infect an iPhone and change the wallpaper settings to a picture of Rick Astley, and contain the words "ikee is never gonna give you up" (ikex is the name of the hacker who perpetrated this worm attack)
The only users affected by this attack are those who failed to change their default password and "jailbroke" their iPhones, making them available to run applications not authorized by Apple. About 4 million users have implemented this "jailbreak" feature, but a small fraction of these individuals haven't changed their default password.
The message left enbedded in the code suggests the hacker used this attack as a joke, or even a warning to showe weaknesses in the iPhone. No matter what his intensions, the weakness has been revealed.
I think the cause of this event is driven entirely by the iPhone's growing popularity. A small niche product is most likely not going to be targeted by cyber criminals, but the more users an application or product has the more profitable a successful hack can be for the criminal. I think ikex truly used this as a warning for those responsible for iPhone security, and wants to see a solution in security (similar to our case study earlier in the semester), and I think that this needs to be taken seriously. Apple has always flaunted it's "no virus" aspect, but with this increased popularity they will become targets of more and more cyber criminals.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/08/iphone-virus-attack-technology-security-rickrolling-cybersecurity.html?feed=rss_popstories
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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This is interesting considering one of the many highlights for apple has been their ability to stay virus-free in a sense. The problem with the iPhone, and I have also fallen victim to its popularity, is that it does not have a warranty. My 3G pretty much stopped working the day the 3GS came out and I was forced to get a new phone because apple would not replace it. ut the issue here is the ability to jailbreak the iPhone, making it a lot more useable, but also making it open to attacks. So I guess it is kind of tit-for-tat...if you will.
ReplyDeleteI think the great popularity of the iPhone is only going to lead to a continuous increase in threats. And not simply the iPhone, but smart phones in general. I recently got a new phone from AT&T, and the sales people there pushed the iPhone extensively. Smart phones are the future, and if this story is any indication at all, threats are a part of that future as well. Number of apps and control of the smart phone market are clearly concerns for Apple in regards to the iPhone, but security certainly needs to be put alongside them, if not above them. Otherwise, I'm sure we can expect more and more stories like this one.
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