We recently wrote about a couple of brand new, out of the box or better to say out of an iPhone case viruses in Hello, I am the first iPhone worm! and Hello, I am the N iPhone worm!. As everyone is aware already those viruses target users of jailbroken phones.
We encourage all of our readers with a jailbroken phones to read the following blog describing a way to secure your iPhone.

Be safe!

Ok. It has started. I mean mobile viruses are on their way to become as common as regular once. According to INTEGO SECURITY MEMO – November 11, 2009 iKee virus we wrote recently about (Hello, I am the first iPhone worm!) is not alone anymore.

Exploit: iPhone/Privacy.A

Discovered: November 10, 2009

Risk: Low

Description: Following the recent discovery of a worm that changes wallpaper on iPhones1, Intego has spotted another piece of malware that attacks iPhones, one that is far more dangerous than the ikee worm. This hacker tool, which Intego identifies as iPhone/Privacy.A, takes advantage of the same vulnerability in the iPhone as the ikee worm, allowing hackers to connect to any jailbroken iPhone (iPhones hacked to allow installation of software other than throug iTunes) whose owners have not changed the root password.

When connecting to a jailbroken iPhone, this tool allows a hacker to silently copy a treasure trove of user data from a compromised iPhone: e-mail, contacts, SMSs, calendars, photos, music files, videos, as well as any data recorded by any iPhone app. Unlike the ikee worm, which signals its presence by changing the iPhone’s wallpaper, this hacker tool gives no indication that it has invaded an iPhone.

Whatch out!

iPhone owners in Australia were lucky enough to be the first once to experience the first ever iPhone worm. It affects users of jailbroken iPhones and simply changes the lock background image to Rick Astley with the messages saying:

ikee is never going to give you up

The first line of the code says:

/ “ikee virus” by ikex

So who is ikex and more importantly why? As very few of us know the first ever computer worm was written by Robert Tappan Morris, who also was first U.S. convict under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He is now an associate professor at MIT. So after all it worked out fine for him. Will it work the same way for ikex? So what was the reason for ikex to create ikee?

Author of the worm was nice enough to explain why he did it

Why?: Boredom, because i found it so stupid the fact that on my initial scan of my 3G optus range i found 27 hosts running SSH daemons, i could access 26 of them with root:alpine. Doesn’t anyone RTFM anymore?So what does it tell us?

It tells us that once again a lot of people do not care much about their privacy.
Mobile web is rapidly changing and there are so many online services that also can be accessed from your mobile device with the key to the kingdom (you user name and password) stored on the device itself. It can be compared with putting your money in the safe and putting a sticker with the password on the safe door.

Wake up, its 2009!

“Privacy 2.0 – Cleaning up the mess Web 2.0 left behind”

What is Privacy 2.0 you might ask? I’d like to start the explanation with a bit of background. Two years ago I founded a startup social network that was a mashup of Facebook, Myspace, Meetup and Yelp. Continue Reading