Worm author tells media he initially infected 100 iPhones

The author of the world’s first iPhone worm appears to be feeling pretty cocky about the whole incident.

Without a hint of apology, or the slightest acknowledgement that he may have done something wrong, Ashley Towns has been speaking to the media who have contacted him via his Twitter account.

Towns, who goes by the online handle of “ikex”, spread the ikee worm which broke into jailbroken iPhones and installed a picture of Rick Astley before hunting for other vulnerable devices. In an interview with ABC News, the 21-year-old student was asked if he knew how many iPhones had been affected:

“Due to the nature of it, it’s kind of hard to tell, I…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.