Extortion on jailbroken iPhones

Some owners of jailbroken iPhones have become the victims of an attempted, and then abandoned extortion plan in the Netherlands.

A report on ArsTechnica.com describes how the hacker successfully managed to gain access to a number of devices by using port scanning to identify those with SSH running, a common feature of jailbroken handsets.

The culprit replaced wallpapers on hacked phones with a message that read “You 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.”

Despite the alarming message the hacker maintains the attack was intended to serve as a warning with little criminal intent and has since withdrawn, and apologised for, the request for money, as well as returning monies received. He's also provided full instructions on how to reinstate your handset without doing a factory reset.

The attack was seemingly straightforward and relied on users that had forgotten to change the iPhone's root directory password.

Thankfully it seems all's well that ends well here, but the next hacker might not have any qualms about silently tapping into your phone; so remember jailbreakers, changed that default root password.