Rick Astley worm jailbreaks onto Apple iPhone
Updated on 13 November 2009
The first worm to infect Apple users who have "jail-broken" iPhones is spreading in Australia, changing the phone's wallpaper to a picture of the web's favourite 80s singer Rick Astley.
The worm, known as ikee, displays the picture with the message, "ikee is never going to give you up."
It only affects phones which have been "jail-broken" where users have unlocked Apple's protection mechanisms in order to download unofficial applications.
Those who have installed SSH and have not changed the default password from "alpine" are at risk. Once the phone is infected the worm then searches for other vulnerable handsets in the user's mobile network.
Although the worm is not currently malicious experts have warned that dangerous variants could follow.
The picture of Rick Astley is thought to pay tribute to internet phenomenon "rickrolling" where users are tricked into clicking on links which diverts them to a video of the singer's 80s track, "Never gonna give you up." Jon Snow tried his own version of rickrolling in April. See him like never before here.
Security warning
So far the ikee worm has only been circulating in Australia where hacker Ashley Towns, who wrote the programme, lives. He told Australia's ABC News that he hoped it would "wake people up" about their online security.
Notes inserted in the worm's malware contains numerous comments about the hacker's motivation.
"People are stupid and this is to prove it.
"But hey who cares it's only your bank details at stake," it says.
Victims can remove the worm by changing the phone's password and deleting a few files.
