Serious iPhone virus on the loose

Tom Manners

Tom Manners is now a freelance journalist, previously full-time at MyBroadband from 2009 to 2010. Tom focuses on cellular technologies, gadgets, mobile phones and broadcasting....

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Data protection firm Sophos is currently warning iPhone users of a new mobile virus which is currently affecting jailbroken devices. 

The new worm, informally referred to as ‘Duh’ or ‘Ikee.B’, was initially reported in The Netherlands and has since been found to turn affected devices into slaves by subscribing them to a botnet which connects to a server based in Lithuania. 

The “Duh” worm hunts for vulnerable iPhones on a wider IP range than Ikee and includes IP ranges in several countries such as The Netherlands, Portugal, Australia, Austria, and Hungary.

“This latest iPhone malware is doubly criminal. Not only does it break into your iPhone without permission, but it also cedes control of your phone to a botnet command server in Lithuania,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor,  Sophos South Africa. 

“What this means is that a user’s iPhone has been turned into a zombie, ready to download and to perform any commands the cybercriminals might want in the future. If infected, you have to consider all of the data that passes through your iPhone compromised,” said Myroff.

Sophos has strongly recommended that all users of jailbroken phones change their default passwords immediately to avoid further attacks.