The first-known iPhone worm has surfaced in Australia, changing the wallpaper home screen on jailbroken phones to the image of 1980's pop-terrorist Rick Astley. The high-tech prank known as getting "Rick Roll'd" was created by Ashley Towns, a 21-year old Australian wonder douche who claims he tooled the virus to raise the issue of security. The wallpaper includes the phrase "ikee is never gonna give you up" spoofing the hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.
The iPhone virus is being heralded as the first to spread from phone to phone. Once the worm is in place, it searches for other similarly vulnerable iPhones on the same mobile network, and installs itself again. The worm exploits
"The virus itself is not malicious and is not out to hurt people. It's just poking fun and hoping waking people up a little." Towns told ABC news. "This virus pretty much exploits people's laziness to change their password."
Towns claims his efforts were aimed at proving that anyone could easily hack into an iPhone, a wildly misguided achievement that's gaining the young Aussie student worldwide attention. Although the virus itself is not malicious, it sends a chilling warning to jailbroken iPhone users that worse attacks could follow. Towns waxed on about the thought process behind his grand douchery of creating an iPhone virus.
"I think to raise awareness for one, somebody with more malicious intent could have done anything - read your SMSs, go through your emails, view your contacts, photos - anything," Towns said.
The exploit only affects users with jailbroken devices who did not change their default SSH root user password, which allows file transfers between phones. iPhone users without jailbroken devices have nothing to fear. Except for the horror of being Rick Roll'd by Mr. Astley when they least expect it.
[ABC News - Australia]
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