14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not exactly a mystery that jailbreaking comes with its downsides, but people are generally adamant to believe there are real security risks involved. Well, starting now, everyone should pay a little more attention to the warning signs.
Mac security specialist Intego, which also develops and maintains iOS malware detection tools that hardly anyone thinks are useful, has confirmed that the widely-reported Cloud Atlas malware is capable of wreaking havoc on iPhones as well.
It infects almost anything with a CPU
Intego’s warning comes courtesy of Graham Cluley, a veteran in IT security who drops by the Intego blog every now and then to share his invaluable take on malware. He has long advocated that Apple customers should not take security matters lightly, even though hackers don’t seem to be as interested in breaching OS X and iOS systems (compared to Windows computers).
This time, he notes, is no different. Cluley says that “the sophisticated Cloud Atlas malware (also called ‘Inception’ by some security vendors, but detected by Intego products as iOS/CloudAtlas) infects Windows computers, BlackBerrys and Android devices, appears to be no different. It can only exploit Apple's iOS iPhones and iPads if they have been jailbroken.”
He goes to explain that the malware will obtain “a wide variety of information” to whisk it away to a remote server where the cybercriminals are, but stops short of mentioning what actual types of data can be stolen from devices. As such, we can assume the worst. Cluley insists that unmodified iPhones are immune to these attacks.
“The message is simple: You may have lots of reasons why you want to jailbreak your iPhone, but you are putting yourself at greater risk of compromise via government spyware,” he concludes.
Apple calls it “Unauthorized modification” for a reason
Apple itself has long maintained that jailbreaking poses serious threats to the user, putting “security vulnerabilities” at the top of a long list of downsides that the user agrees to when he / she decides to jailbreak.
Other negative aspects surrounding the practice include instability, shortened battery life, unreliable voice and data, disruption of services, and even the inability to apply future software updates, according to the Cupertino giant. However, that last part is likely mentioned as a precaution.
Point is, you might want to put off that jailbreak, at least until Cloud Atlas can be combatted in iOS through an update to existing jailbreak tools, or via downloadable Cydia packages.
