arstechnica.com — Though jailbreaking an iPhone certainly opens up opportunities to add functionality that Apple doesn't approve of, it can also make an iPhone less secure. Several Dutch iPhone users found that out the hard way after a hacker attacked a number of vulnerable phones on T-mobile Netherlands and tried to extort ?5 from them.
Nov 2, 2009 View in Crawl 4
diggymowNov 3, 2009
That's weird it showed up as hunter2 on mine....
aristotle0dudeNov 3, 2009
This is precisely why I have not jailbroken my iPhone 3GS. Yes, you can disable SSH whenever you don't need it and you can change the root password but who is to say that the jailbreaking hackers have not left some dormant nasty backdoors into iphones that you are not aware of? I had previously jailbroken my iPod Touch and I was involved in the theme/mod scene for a while but I am wary of the jailbreak software for this very reason.
Closed AccountNov 3, 2009
Jailbreaking the iphone/ipod touch does not make it insecure. Adding the ssh daemon and not changing the root password makes it insecure. You have to add this manually afterward, it is never installed by default.
lowenfelsNov 3, 2009
anyone else have the "there's an app for that" song stuck in their head nonstop? make it go away!
nyxerebosNov 3, 2009
Hacking is the creative use, misuse or re-use of technology. It may be legal or not, but it's not the illegal part that makes it hacking, but whether it's skilled and creative. What this guy did does not strike me as either.
johnnysoftwareNov 12, 2009
Well, it doesn't happen to iPhone users unless they hack their own phone and install SSH on it.The ones who do will get robbed of private data, possibly become victims of identity theft or physical crimes, socked with huge phone bills, and possibly have to pay some fines when their phone gets out of line. Not all, but some will. They clearly do not understand what they are doing to their phone and that there is no point in doing it. It is all downside.
johnnysoftwareNov 12, 2009
I just feel sorry for the people who read in one of Microsoft's blogs in january that installing this jailBREAK on their COMPETITOR'S cell phone was something they HAD to do!There is an article out that says Apple pointed out in July the jailbroken phones could DDoS cell towers and other stuff.EFF requested a waiter on DMCA regulations to let people jailbreak iPhones legally.Not three months later the jailbroken iPhones are getting hacked, information is being stolen from them, and someone is "requesting" money from them telling them worse things can happen.Tells me EFF is no longer as technically swift or as much of a consumer advocate as I thought they were.