A 21-year-old Australian TAFE student has created the world’s first iPhone virus designed to infect phones that have not been protected by passwords.
But the creator of the virus, Ashley Towns, has since retreated from the public eye after releasing the app, blocking his Twitter account in order to prevent users from reading his updates.
The virus will only affect phones that are “jailbroken”, where users digitally crack open the phone’s file system in order to install customised apps and user interface themes not approved by Apple.
The virus changes a user’s wallpaper to a picture of 1980s pop star Rick Astley, and displays the words “Ikee is never gonna give you up” – a reference to Astley’s hit song and Towns’ Twitter account.
But Towns insists the virus is not malicious, will not affect a user’s phone permanently and can be easily erased. Instead, he told ABC the virus was designed in order to exploit “people’s laziness to change their password”.
“Somebody with more malicious intent could have done anything – read your SMSs, go through your emails, view your contacts, photos – anything,” he said. “The virus itself is not malicious and is not out to hurt people. It’s just poking fun and hopefully waking people up a little.”
The virus comes after a number of security experts in the US have flagged the ability for hackers to obtain personal information from iPhones and Macs, despite the company’s marketing strategy that brands its products as virus-free.
While Towns says he is unsure whether he has broken any computer security laws, he maintains the virus is not harmful and can easily be deleted once a user has been infected by changing the password.
“Due to the nature of it, it’s kind of hard to tell [how many people are affected], I know my phone hit about 100 alone but from there I have no idea,” he said.
While some have doubted Towns’ ability to create an iPhone virus, as several others have tried unsuccessfully, he maintains he can prove the authenticity of the virus by publishing its source code.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
