So you thought you knew better than Apple. I mean, all you wanted to do was to install a few third-party apps, drop that cool wall paper and have bragging rights over hacking the iPhone. Whatever your motivation was you have successfully jail-broken the iPhone – congratulations. With that comes a degree of satisfaction and social praise - well that is until you realize that you have a virus. One of the first reported iPhone worms to be more precise. You see by jailbraking your iPhone you inadvertently reset the root password. This password is well-known which allows hackers to exploit the unprotected iPhone.

According to the anti-virus community, there are three known worms:

Ikee

• Changes your standard wallpaper.
• You are infected if your wallpaper has a picture of Rick Astley and underneath the text reads “ikee is never gonna give you up.”

iPhone/Privacy.A

• It goes through all of your personal information.
• It doesn’t leave anything noticable on your iPhone itself. It will install itself on a computer and scan all wireless networks for a vulnerable iPhones.

Third worm (yet unnamed)

• It copies your personal data and redirects online banking customers of a Dutch bank to a fake phishing Web site.
• If your iPhone’s battery life has been strangely short your iPhone might have the third worm.

If you think you are infected please read: How To De-Worm Your iPhone.

If you have not jailbroken your iPhone – then Apple says you have nothing to worry about. Obviously, nothing is fool-proof. If you think that your iPhone may have a virus – take it into your local Apple store. It’s better to be safe than infected.