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Fri, 27 Nov 2009 iPhone hacker Ashley Towns gets lucrative job after Ikee worm release

iPhone Ikee hacker given job with startup app developer

Megan Burger PC Advisor

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Crime does pay, author of the first iPhone worm has been given a job with Australian iPhone app developer Mogeneratio.

Ashley Towns may have expressed no regrets over writing the bug, but he has subsequently landed a job with an Australian company that develops legitimate iPhone apps.

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Towns' worm, known as Ikee, threatens iPhone users who have jaibroken their phones to let them run unauthorised software.

The iPhone malware hit the headlines early this month.

Ikee doesn't do anything particularly bad - it changes the victim's wallpaper to a photograph of 80s singer Rick Astley and then seeks out other phones to infect.

The worm does not affect most iPhone users; only those with jailbroken iPhones that are running a Unix utility called SSH (Secure Shell) with the iPhone's default password, "alpine", still in use, but its arrival heralded a minor boom in iPhone malware, being closely followed by two other infestations.

The second piece of malware harvested personal data from iPhones, including user email, contacts, SMS messages, calendars and multimedia files. More recently, a much more serious worm has been targeting jailbroken iPhones and adding them to a mobile botnet.

Towns is far from the first hacker to demonstrate his skill via nuisance malware and then turn legitimate, landing a lucrative job. But the move is sure to generate publicity and controversy (which may be the point).

Indeed, Sophos' Graham Cluley was typically quick to tell BBC News: "It leaves a nasty taste that he has been rewarded like this, yet has not even expressed regret for his actions."

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Comments received


London Guy said on Fri, 27 Nov 2009

Towns demonstrated what happens when you break with an EULA. Apple tells you not to do it and he demoed what happens next. It was non-mal and maybe it was a proof of concept gone wrong? I think this is an interesting unique case unlike most worms, Trojans, etc.. this was essentially one hacker effecting other hackers.

Hmmm...

alf said on Sat, 28 Nov 2009

When i buy something, that thing becomes my property in it's entirety. The seller no longer has any rights of control over it. The seller may not always like the way I use it, but if so, there are many ways to protest without attempting bullying threats, which seem to be fashionable at present


Richie said on Sat, 28 Nov 2009

I think what he did was wright, too many complain of security issues when it is not the computer device at fault but them selfs for not putting in a password or buying a router and not doing what the instructions tell them about changing the default password, it is like can't be bothered to lock your front door when you go out and are outraged when you come back to discovered you have been robed, what you think would happen, the real world is not safe.

VJ said on Sun, 29 Nov 2009

The guy should be in prison. No doubt it will catch up with him at some point.

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