On the 3rd of November, 2009 Dutch hackers made the news for releasing the first worm / virus for the iPhone, the method of penetration was through using the default root password for SSH and changing the background of the phone to a specific image whilst popping up with a warning the users phone is insecure. This hack only effected jailbroken iPhones.
On the 4th of November the Dutch hackers released the source code to this worm.
On the 6th of November, 2009 an unemployed web designer by the name of Ashley Kaine Towns released the 'first worm / virus for the iPhone,' the method of penetration was through using the default root password for SSH and changing the background of the phone to a specific image whilst popping up with a warning the users phone is insecure. This hack only effected jailbroken iPhones.
On the 9th of November Ashley Towns ran to the Australian media claiming to have written the first virus for the iPhone. The Australian media failed to do it's homework and believed his story and went to press with it.
On the 10th of November, cyber vigilante's from Halcon and the internet group Anonymous--gathered together on an imageboard known as 4chan--located Ashley Towns and publicly outed his plagerism on the internet. The NSW Police were given a 24 hour head start on the AFP however the NSW Police have failed to act. Ashley's version of the worm that he stole from the Dutch hackers however contained many flaws, including costing handset owners several hundred dollars in downstream fees due to it using the internet to search for more targets, a problem not detected in Germany where the original was released. Ashley has since been offered a job, allowing him to profit further from his crime.
The motivation behind claiming another hackers virus as his own is clearly based on monetary gain, the individual appears to run a web design firm from his bedroom at his mothers house in suburban Dapto, and has yet to file a tax return of any profit from that ABN. With no education, or regular employment, it appears Ashley's attention stunt is driven for pecuniary gain through attention driven through the media.
The message that this sends out to the Australian IT security community is that education and work experience is less valuable than the ability to stunt, and further that the law enforcement of Australia lacks the technological capabilities to even so much as google this individual and arrest him for the damages he has caused to individuals financially who are on limited plans.
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Halcon Technologies formed in 1993 as a special interest group online for those inclined towards computer security. It played an integral role in shaping the IT history of Australia, and was even turned to by SOCOG and the ABC to critically evaluate the chances of cyber-terrorism during the Sydney Olympics. Halcon is considered a 'grey hat' hacking group, a loose knit group of individuals who tend to stay on the moral side of hacking, and are strongly behind hacktivism.
Ref docs:
Ashley Towns's Information : http://www.halcon.com.au/towns.txt
Original hackers (eng): http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/03/dutch-hacker-accesses-jailbroken-iphones-requests-5/
Original hackers (dut):http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1376420/0
ED Article on Ashley being caught:http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Ashley_Towns
The thread that started the cyber vigilanteism:http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/950/brandom1257784240768.png
Hack to learn. Don't learn to hack.
Regards,
Zero-Fear@Halcon
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