Published in Mobiles

iPhone has a proper virus

by on24 November 2009

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You get that when you are popular


For ages
the fruit themed peddler of electronic toys, Apple has been claiming that its products are built with such wonderful security that they were invulnerable to the outside world. More cynical types pointed out that no virus writer could be bothered getting out of bed to write a virus for an operating system that could only infect three in every 100 computers.

Now that the iPhone has gotten a bit popular it seems that virus writers are taking an interest and are finding it a target which is as easy as a Sunday morning.
The new virus, dubbed "Duh" after a section of its code, also only affects iPhones that have been "jailbroken" so it is unlikely that Apple are going to care that much.

It connects the phone to an "internet control and command centre" in Lithuania that allows hackers surreptitiously to issue commands to the device remotely. It steals online banking passwords and snuffles around the user's SMS messages. People who visit ING's online banking site were directed to a phoney look-alike designed to steal their passwords.The worm also affected Australians using the Optus network but it was unclear how many had been infected so far.

It is a bit tricky that the only symptom of the infection is a severe reduction in battery life as iPhones tend to go through batteries quite quickly at the best of times.


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