Infinite Path

The Apple iPhone has been infected by its first worm after a young hacker in Australia created a virus intended to warn users about the potential dangers of not changing default passwords set on phones.

Ashley Towns, who is just 21-years-old, created the worm to change the wallpaper on the iPhone to display a picture of Rick Astley, a pop singer famous in the 1980s, along with a message that reads “ikee is never going to give you up”. The worm will only affect iPhones that have been jailbroken, a process regarded as illegal by Apple which allows users to run software which has not yet been approved by the company on their phones. It is thought that approximately 10% of all iPhones and iPod Touch models have been jailbroken, with some users believing it will allow them greater functionality. However, all this process really leaves them open to is compromised security.

Although the worm spreading at the moment is not malicious or harmful (and can in fact be removed by users changing their passwords from the default option and deleting certain files), security experts are concerned that it is simply the first of many variants which could have devastating consequences.

Ashley Towns has certainly succeeded in his mission to warn people about the potential effects of their “laziness to change their password”, as he puts it, and it is a stark reminder to all mobile phone users of the need to treat security as a priority at all times.