Beware the First iPhone Virus

Ashley Towns, a 21-year-old Australian student, admits to creating the first iPhone virus. But, it wasn’t something he did to be cruel. Really, it was just to “raise awareness for one.” And what else? “This virus pretty much exploits people’s laziness to change their password,” Towns also says. “Generally you should always change your password after setting up on the iPhone as all iPhones use the same password.”

The virus spreads from phone to phone. However, it only infects phones that have been jailbroken, a process that allows the ability to run non-Apple approved applications by bypassing the Apple App Store.

Here’s a bit more on Towns’ creation:

• the virus changes the iPhone’s wallpaper to a photograph of Rick Astley (a 1980s singer best known for his hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up“)
• it might also show a banner that says “Ikee is never gonna give you up”
• “the virus itself is not malicious and is not out to hurt people,” Towns says
• it only takes a couple of minutes to remove, supposedly: change the phone’s password and delete a few files

More information can be found at ABCNews. Australia is all over the news these days… or is it my imagination?

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