on 9th November, 2009

The first ever iPhone worm has attacked cell phones in Australia.
Actually, “attacked” might be a strong description since all the worm does is change the wallpaper background to a picture of Rick Astley with the caption “iKee is never going to give you up” referencing Astley’s hit song “Never gonna give you up.”
The worm only affected jailbroken iPhones who never changed their default security password. Users can easily remove the worm by changing the password and removing the file.
The creator, a 21-year-old Melborne resident named Ashley Towns, has made no attempts to hide his identity and has taken full credit for the malware. He is currently scheduling interviews with news organizations through his Twitter account.
He claims his worm was created to teach people to read their manuals and change their passwords. “People are stupid,” he wrote in the virus coding notes “and this is to prove it.”

He told ABC news in Australia that he infected about 100 phones but has no idea how far the virus has spread.
“The virus itself is not malicious and is not out to hurt people,” he told ABC. “It’s just poking fun and hoping waking people up a little.”
If I were going to get a malware virus, this would be the one I’d want. At least he has a sense of humor.







Leave a Reply