Hacker Hijacks iPhones, Asks For Money

The guy that hijacked all those jailbroken iPhones earlier today has apparently had a change of heart. Originally the scumbag asked for money via PayPal but had a sudden change of heart. Something tells me the authorities will not be as kind when they find him (and they will).

One of the victims posted a screenshot from his iPhone of the SMS received. It said: "Your iPhone's been hacked because it's really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files."

This kind of takes viruses/scams to a whole new level.

Would this be an appropriate time to say Apple OS is uber secure in contrast to Windows?

Scumbag gets what he deserves though.

Great move, make all the phones have the same root password and active ssh

Well personally if you hack your device and open yourself up to these kind of attacks it's your own fault. After all he was just exposing that they really did make their iphones insecure.

Originally Posted by Marlfox

Would this be an appropriate time to say Apple OS is uber secure in contrast to Windows?

Scumbag gets what he deserves though.

I'd say no.

To me this seems to be only slightly different than half of the ads that pop up when you go to many websites. "We see an issue and will fix it for you if you pay us a fee." Face it, it's only a matter of time before your cell is flooded with marketing just like your home phone and mail already are.

LOL,

Who leaves the default password for anything?

That's right up there with not securing your wifi router and password.

The hijacker said:

I have no intention of harming you or whatever, but, some hackers do! It's just my advice to secure your phone.

So, extortion doesn't cause harm?

Originally Posted by ol1bit

LOL,

Who leaves the default password for anything?

That's right up there with not securing your wifi router and password.

Pretty much everyone.

Originally Posted by rudy

Pretty much everyone.

lol, you want to change the root password on the iphone? the default is alpine!

Originally Posted by TheBuzzer

Great move, make all the phones have the same root password and active ssh

Not apple's fault however. Its the people installing apps that install SSH and not realizing they need to change, or the people who actually installed it on purpose and never changed it. You almost never see a tutorial tell you to change the password, or at least disable it if you don't need it.

I don't see the authorities doing anything, tbh.

The users of jailbroken iphones are already doing something that many people consider to be illegal.

Originally Posted by Castor Troy

I don't see the authorities doing anything, tbh.

The users of jailbroken iphones are already doing something that many people consider to be illegal.

Why is it illegal in some opinions?

Originally Posted by Matthew1034

The hijacker said:

<quote>

So, extortion doesn't cause harm?

This wasn't extortion. He didn't threaten to destroy, damage, or take anything if payment wasn't received. Anyone this happened to was very much free NOT to pay him, and figure out the solution themselves. Anyone with a basic knowledge of *NIX could have found the solution and fixed it. He tried to make a bit of money off the situation, not different than (as was said above) those popups telling you to pay due to "infected files" in your computer.

He was wrong to break in, not wrong (legally, at least) to try to charge for it. And considering he DIDN'T do it for nefarious purposes (anyone else could have kept quiet about it to the users, and then abused it later, or even do something like brick all the phones), and probably made no money off the site*, I think a slap on the wrist is in order.

* If he did he should pay it back.

I feel very strongly about this kind of thing because a good friend of mine "hacked" in High School, which consisted of no more than using netsend to broadcast a warning about a security risk (much as this guy did). And this friend was amost expelled from the school system of my province. I stand behind those white hats who choose to, instead of using exploits for their personal advantage (and $7 per phone, for maybe a few hundred phones tops, isn't much of a "personal advantage", plus the fact that he gave up on that quickly), actively TELL the users of the system about them so it can be corrected.

Originally Posted by thesmokingman

Why is it illegal in some opinions?

Because many people believe that whatever Apple puts in there EULA is the end all be all.

Originally Posted by Castor Troy

I don't see the authorities doing anything, tbh.

The users of jailbroken iphones are already doing something that many people consider to be illegal.

Jailbreaking isn't illegal in any jurisdiction. It violates Apple's EULA and warranty on the phone, but it isn't "illegal".

Originally Posted by chrisupman

Well personally if you hack your device and open yourself up to these kind of attacks it's your own fault. After all he was just exposing that they really did make their iphones insecure.

Totally agree..

Originally Posted by djBon2112

Jailbreaking isn't illegal in any jurisdiction. It violates Apple's EULA and warranty on the phone, but it isn't "illegal".

Also Apple says your are a terrorist or support terrorists by jailbreaking your phone.