Emailing "Ghastly Rick Astley Worm Infects iPhones"
Do you remember Rick Astley?
He had a big fat hit that was ghastly
He said I'm never gonna give you up or let you down.
Well I'm here to tell ya that d#%k's a clown
--Nick Lowe "All Men Are Liars"
The first iPhone work is upon us, and the face of it 1980's crooner Rick Astley.
The worm, called ikee, is based on an iPhone wallpaper hack developed in the Netherlands. Aparently, it only effects jailbroken iPhones in Austrailia that have SSH (Secure Shell) installed with a password that hasn't been changed from the default word alpine. See here for a definition of SSH, which is supposed to secure networks and devices.
The fairly innocuous malware changes the iPhone's wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley with the words "ikee is never going to give you up," and then searches for other iPhones on the network to do the same.
According to SophosLabs, at least four variants of the worm are floating around. The best thing you can do to protect your jailbroken iPhone from this worm, or the possibility of one with more malicious intent, is to change your root password.
See here to learn more about the ikee worm and below for Nick Lowe singing his song "All Men Are Liars."