Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Hackers are seeking out those who jailbreak their iPhones - and will punish them

There can be no escaping the fact that Apple are on a roll, and news about their iPhones are everywhere. However not all the news is good and the increasing propensity of iPhone users to jailbreak their applications might well have lead to the intrusion of a virus that could cause a few problems.

Apparently Apple execs are getting upset regarding the recent release of, a new tool that lets you jailbreak your iPhone. Known as Jailbreakme 2 what makes this tool that little bit different is that iPhoners can jailbreak any application while doing away with the need to hook their phone to a computer.

What is also ruffling the brow of Apple execs is the news that "Jailbreaking" in other words the act of removing an iPhone from Apple's software and the various restrictions that come with which can also provide the potential to remove it from AT&T's network was last week ruled legal by the U.S. Copyright Office. This means that a "jail broken" iPhone can now run apps that have neither been developed by Apple, or have been given their seal of approval. Whilst this "breakthrough" will provide iPhoners considerably more control over what apps they apply to their smartphone. The obvious danger is that once and iPhone comes out from under the umbrella of Apple anti-virus protection. Apple is warning that the device will almost certainly be less stable, and remind users that the act of jailbreaking the device rescinds all warranties.

What appears to have particularly upset Steve Jobs and his crew is that from now on , those who want to jailbreak simply need to log on to the Jailbreakme 2.0 web site through iPhones own Safari browser. Doing so will allow the download of a piece of code that will allow rapid safe breaking. Before the arrival of Jailbreakme 2, those who wanted to cut their Apple ties needed to connect their iPhone to a computer and transferring the necessary software to the phone, which didn't necessarily need to be a Mac.

Apple security experts have predicted problems, and the first gap that they have identified is the way that Apple mobile version software handles PDF documents, with a gap that hacker could conceivably exploit to embed malicious code in such a document.

While industry security experts hasten to point out that there is no evidence around that any gasps have been exploited. One thing for sure is that hackers will be working on it. The best piece of advice that anyone can give is that if you intend to jailbreak your iPhone make sure that the moist powerful piece of anti-virus software is in place before you do.

 

< Back