No Rick as second worm targets iPhones

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Another iPhone worm has been discovered which targets jailbroken devices that haven’t changed their root passwords - but this time it doesn’t bring up a Rick Astley wallpaper.

Calling the malware iPhone/Privacy.A, Mac security firm Intego said that it is far more dangerous than the ikee worm as it did not signal its presence to the affected iPhone user with Rick Astley wallpaper.

Also, rather than just spreading through iPhones, the malware can be installed on a Mac, PC, Unix or Linux computer and scan an accessible network. If it finds a jailbroken iPhone it will break into it, steal data and record it.

Intego claimed that the hacker could get access to a ‘treasure trove’ of user data, such as email, contacts, SMS, calendars, photos, music files and videos.

“The hacker tool could easily be installed, for example, on a computer on display in a retail store, which could then scan all iPhones that pass within the reach of its network," the company said on its blog.

“Or, a hacker could sit in an internet café and let his computer scan all iPhones that come within the range of the Wi-Fi network in search of data. Hackers could even install this tool on their own iPhones, and use it to scan for jailbroken phones as they go about their daily business.”

Intego stressed that users who had jailbroken their iPhones were now exposing themselves to known vulnerabilities that were out ‘in the wild’.

It said that the amount of personal data that could be stolen meant that iPhone users should stick with their ‘stock configuration’.

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