Owners of Jailbroken iPhones Beware!

Beware of Hackers

If you have a jailbroken iPhone, that is one that has been modified to be used on other networks and run non-Apple approved apps, you need to watch yourself. Besides the fact that you have put yourself on Apple’s hit list, which means that when they run the world you’ll be the first thrown into the forced work camps, you’re opening your phone and life to a whole lot of madness.

I get it; not everyone loves AT&T. They overextended their network and underestimated the iPhone response so their network may not be all that great. I also get that many people want the freedom to choose any app they want and not be told by Apple which ones are appropriate and which one’s aren’t. There is no way you’d let Dell tell what software you could put on your computer, so I get that it can rub people the wrong way. But to go through the process of hacking your iPhone is a little beyond me.

Just ask hacker turned iPhone app developer Ashley Towns. Ashley made one of the first worms, a destructive program like a virus, for the iPhone. The worm called “ikee” infected jailbroken iPhone only and replaced the wallpaper with a picture of Australian pop singer Rick Astley. While he meant it as only a prank the worm and news of the vulnerability exploded around the world and soon his small prank was water cooler conversation for tech nerds around the world.

Ikee’s basic premise and structure was later used by another hacker who made “duh”, another worm. This one though wasn’t so tongue and cheek as Towns’ and was able to hijack banking information from jailbroken phones. Later a Dutch hacker made a worm that held iPhones hostage and in order to get control of your phone back you had to pay 5 GBP (Pounds)! Can you imagine? Like monthly service fees aren’t bad enough!

With all of the potential damage that can be done by hackers and their worms to jailbroken iPhones why would you bother? While Apple may be a bit elitist and not exactly fair when it comes to what apps they allow into their system in the end they are doing it partially to maintain the integrity of the system. Without these kinds of controls and just letting any developer crank any software they want for the iPhone and iPod Touch your phone would be under constant attack.

Not only would service outages be the norm but violation of your personal data, your bank account, your Face Book, your email and everything else you love your iPhone would be constant. Part of the reason we all love Apple is because of their reputation for safety and reliability. All of that would be thrown out of the window.

So I say if you’re willing to hack your phone to get at the apps you want then you run the risk of having it hacked again by shady developers out there.

But it’s not all bad news. Ashley Towns was tracked down by some journalists and after admitting what he did was offered an iPhone developer’s job with a major Australian development firm.

Photo Credits: William Hook

Originally posted 2010-01-07 03:24:57.

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This post involves:

apple, ashley towns, AT&T, hacker, ikee, iPhone, jailbroken iphone, non-apple approved apps, other networks

... and focuses on:

iPhone

Posted by MacNation on August 18, 2010 in iPhone.