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  • IKEE Worm Developer Gets A Job at Australia’s leading iPhone App Company
    by
    Nick Hesson
    Published on 11-26-2009 11:27 PM
    15 Comments Comments


    In today's world it seems a lot easier to get places when your famous, skills or not. All you have to do is look at the plethora of folks who became famous from viral You Tube videos. Some for the good, some for the worse. But none the less, how much chatter you can bring is generally the most valuable hiring asset these days when it comes to media base companies.

    Now I'm not insinuating anything about the developer of the Ikee worm, only reporting the information I have found. I won't mention is name either, if you want to find that out, you'll have to search for it yourself. Clearly the developer has some skills, but I can only image the amount of people that must be pissed if their phone got "rick rolled".

    Earlier the developer posted on twitter that they got a job with mogeneration, which claims to be Australia’s leading iPhone App Development company. Personally, I don't care, but you can imagine that whoever got rickrolled, would not agree with this move on the company's part.

    Let alone, the company, mogeneration, blogged about the worm, estimating that there might be between 17,000-25,000 jailbroken iPhones in Australia that could get infected with the worm.

    Not only did this worm cause some minor grief, it also triggered more dangerous worms which we've all heard of by now. These new worms being dangerous and a big security risk for a lot of users. He also said at one point that he triggered the whole mess by initially infecting about 100 iPhones
    "Due to the nature of it, it's kind of hard to tell, I know my phone hit about 100 alone but from there I have no idea,".
    Sources:
    BBC News - iPhone worm creator lands software job
    Ikee Worm Author Gets iPhone Developer Job
    Ikee worm author gets job at iPhone app firm | Graham Cluley's blog
    This article was originally published in forum thread: IKEE Worm Developer Gets A Job at Australia’s leading iPhone App Company started by nickhesson View original post
    Comments 15 Comments
    1. warisjain's Avatar
      warisjain - 11-26-2009, 11:37 PM
      lol...i shud start doing the same

      1st btw
    1. CHR!S's Avatar
      CHR!S - 11-26-2009, 11:52 PM
      -ihazwave. Nothing creative, just wanna win!!!
      CHR!S
    1. confucious's Avatar
      confucious - 11-27-2009, 12:36 AM
      Australia’s leading iPhone App Development company
      They have 4 apps in the app store - I'm sure the aussies do better than that!

      Hopefully they won't get any more. I certainly won't be buying from them.
    1. rhekt's Avatar
      rhekt - 11-27-2009, 12:52 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by CHR!S View Post
      -ihazwave. Nothing creative, just wanna win!!!
      CHR!S
      ^^uh. wrong post corky.

      -i think it would be more interesting news if he got signed onto a security firm.

      Quote Originally Posted by warisjain View Post
      lol...i shud start doing the same

      1st btw
      ^yeah im 5th BTW ^
    1. sphangman's Avatar
      sphangman - 11-27-2009, 02:19 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by confucious View Post
      They have 4 apps in the app store - I'm sure the aussies do better than that!

      Hopefully they won't get any more. I certainly won't be buying from them.

      Would you still feel like that if your iphone had got rickrolled and THAT protected you from getting you data stolen by the subsequent worms ? I can't see anything wrong with white hat hacking that makes peoples devices more secure and protect them from their own ignorance ..
    1. confucious's Avatar
      confucious - 11-27-2009, 04:48 AM
      What he did was illegal - to profit from illegal activities is wrong.
    1. hancoma's Avatar
      hancoma - 11-27-2009, 07:39 AM
      Known ssh password issue exploited, simple app created and he nails a job...
      Unbelievable!
      This guy would not even be known if everyone changed their ssh p/w as the door would be closed.

      Sorry, but it is my opinion that what he did took absolutely zero talent or skill, and is being rewarded for it...
      I think I will make one, prepare to be meat spinned! LOL
    1. xxpwnxx's Avatar
      xxpwnxx - 11-27-2009, 08:13 AM
      thats it were ******!
    1. hollow0's Avatar
      hollow0 - 11-27-2009, 10:02 AM
      so the person who sent the worms out in Aussie is getting a job with the leading app developer in Australia? or did i read it wrong? If i didn't then geez that's stupid... Anyway by now i think iPhone users should get the hint. I mean this ssh issue has to be known globaly.
    1. awesomeSlayer's Avatar
      awesomeSlayer - 11-27-2009, 10:04 AM
      Why in the hell would someone hire this guy?! Don't tell they hire him so they can spread worms on jailbroken devices.
    1. southfrisco's Avatar
      southfrisco - 11-27-2009, 02:19 PM
      I'll make sure I remember never to buy anything from Mogeneration. Makes you wonder what sorts of things this person will try and put into their apps.

      Also goes to show that scumbags can get ahead in life.
    1. dreadlk's Avatar
      dreadlk - 11-28-2009, 09:53 AM
      I think people should buy their apps as soon as they hit the App store and then write reviews that show how much you appreciate what they have just done. This is sure to help there sales which is your way of spending a buck or two too share the Love.
    1. yifanlu's Avatar
      yifanlu - 11-29-2009, 11:51 AM
      Even if this kid didn't steal the code from Dutch hackers (who released the code 2 days prior to him using it), changed one line of it, and got his friends to contact the media, making him a thief and liar. What he did was also illegal, and he should be arrested, not given honors. I feel sorry for Mogeneration for their new bundle of fail.
    1. Nick Hesson's Avatar
      Nick Hesson - 11-30-2009, 01:31 PM
      Just read this over at MacWorld: Vendor rages after iPhone hacker given job | Security | iPhone Central | Macworld

      A security firm has expressed incredulity at the news that the Australian prank hacker who wrote a program targeting Apple iPhone users has been given a job by an application developer.

      The writer of the Ikee worm, Ashley Towns, sprang to prominence only two weeks ago after his creation was found to be changing the desktop wallpaper on some “jailbroken” or unlocked iPhones to display a picture of 1980s British pop-star Rick Astley. Now, fellow-Australian software company Mogeneration is reported to have offered Towns a paid job after hearing of his efforts.

      “Yey, I got the job. I’m now an iPhone application developer,” says the 21-year old’s Twitter feed, adopting a nonchalant attitude that has seriously annoyed more than one security company. Currently, only one is willing to go on the record.

      “What disheartens me is that Towns has shown no regret for what he did. He admitted specifically infecting 100 iPhones himself, letting his worm loose in the process. Now his utterly irresponsible behaviour appears to have been rewarded,” said Graham Cluley of software outfit Sophos, in an e-mailed press statement.

      “There are plenty of young coders out there who would not have acted so stupidly, and are just as worthy of an opportunity inside a software development company, and are actually quite likely to be better coders than Towns who made a series of blunders with his code,” huffed Cluley, who has a long public record for taking issue with anything that even vaguely appears to reward malware writers.

      The fuss is unexpected given that the Ikee program was only capable of infecting a tiny number of users, specifically those who not only had unlocked their phone’s application restrictions, but were using an secure shell (SSH) utility set to the default password. The program is only confirmed to have infected 100 users in Australia.

      More contentiously, however, only days after Ikee came a second piece of more serious malware targeting the same SSH vulnerability, this time in an attempt to enrol the infected handset in a spam botnet.

      The theme of malware writers using their creations to tout for work, however unintentionally, has a long history. An odd example was the CV that the writer of the notorious MyDoom is said to have embedded in its code for research companies to find. More blatantly, a storm erupted when the German author of the equally destructive Netsky/sasser malware was hired by a security firm in the country.
    1. darwina's Avatar
      darwina - 12-01-2009, 09:11 PM
      Slightly disturbing. That's pretty much an international cyber-crime, assuming phones outside of Australia were infected... do they not have a criminal justice system there?
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