Worm attack bites at Apple iPhone

Now I’m not one to be smug (!), but when the people who ‘claim’ Apple computers are more secure than the generic Windows PC, I like to point out simple facts like the above.

ALL computers are prone to malicious attack from viruses / worm / hacking etc…
It’s just the size of the target you offer that changes.

The article does say that the malicious code only effects ‘jail-broken’ iPhones (that is to say ones that have had the Apple security stuff removed in an attempt to run apps), but that it exists at all is a worrying thing.

As evidenced by a client recently, people in general are ignorant of both the threat, AND the potential harm things like this can cause.
The old argument we constantly hear is “but why would they WANT my data?”.
The answer is simple ~ because they can!
It’s not a case of wanting to target Joe Blogs company as such (though sometime it IS), but if you leave the door open, someone will come around sooner or later. That they can’t find anything of value is irrelevant, if they can cause some change/damage, then that is reward enough.

Now I don’t claim to be a network security guru, but the client in question watched me crack their WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) password in about 3 minutes from a standing start ~ slow by some standards! (BTW I DO know a security guru ~ call me!). Suffice to say they were a little taken aback at the lack of security on their systems, more so when I told them what was possible once this little hurdle (the WEP key) was out of the way.

It’s possibly poetic justice that the people who wish to remove ‘protection’ from their systems get infected, but sometimes it’s those very protection systems which cause the most problems ~ the Symantec protection softwares spring to mind. This is the main reason people remove them; if they cause more issues than a ‘potential’ threat, why bother? Surely it’s worth taking the risk if it might never happen??
A glowing example of false economy if ever there was!

One would also think that the urban myth of Apple equipment being secure was also a contributing factor in the propagation of this worm. People believing that the iPhone, being of Apple origin, was immune to such threats. :oops:

I would think it’s only a matter of time before we see something truely nasty hitting the iPhone specifically, but also some of the recent smart phones too.

Watch this space…

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