The hacks are outdoing themselves again.
The US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) issued a warning that a bogus upgrade is wending its way around the Internet. “iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep†claims to be a necessary precursor for 1.1.3 firmware. The bottom line is that the Trojan can overwrite some utilities but that it isn’t too dangerous.
Anyone who works in IT and thinks this is a real threat needs to hand their badge in to security and their resignation letter to HR. The reason being: too stupid for employment.
Now, I suppose I’d better back that up.
This “trojan” requires you do unlock your iPhone, then download a hacked 1.1.3 version of the firmware from a dodgy web site. Then you install said dodgy firmware. And it does some bad voodoo.
This is akin to:
- Download a disk image of an operating system from some dodgy site. Say a Linux live CD from “thedodgysite.com”.
- Boot and install it on your PC, ignoring the warnings that reformatting your disk will remove your data
- Complain bitterly that your data is gone
- Complain some more that your Windows apps won’t run
- Complain until you are blue in the face that the apps contained in the install all bring you to porn sites
Don’t these people understand? It’s not like you caught a trojan because you were stupid enough to run an unpatched version of Outlook from the last millennium. You installed a dodgy OS from a dodgy web site on your pristine iPhone. You did this. On your own. Using your fingers and hands and grey matter. You should get a refund on the grey matter.
There are only two actions that Apple could take with this sort of stupidity:
- Keep the OS in ROM only. That’d break software updates, but stop the cool hackers out there responsible for jailbreaks from doing their magic
- Perform a recall on all iPhones owned by the chronically stupid
I vote for the latter. Some people are simply too stupid to own technology. To this end I think that we should promote the use of Etch-A-Sketch and Speak’n’Spell devices for people who get bitten by this one.