Jul 30, 2009 12:20 am US/Pacific
Text Hack Threatens Apple iPhones
Kiet Do, Reporting.
CUPERTINO (CBS 5) ―
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Apple iPhone 3G.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Hackers could take over your iPhone, starting on Thursday. It's a problem that Apple apparently knew about, but has not fixed.
If your iPhone gets a text message that contains a single square character, be very concerned.
"If you were to see that text message with the square, shut off your phone immediately and give it some time," said CNET Executive Editor Tom Merritt.
The square character is the only sign you'll have that the phone is getting invisible commands and getting hijacked. Once they're in, the bad guys can do anything you can do: turn it off, call people, e-mail or worse.
"A lot of people carry really private information, like bank account information and passwords and things like that in their phones," Merritt said. "And the attacker would have access to that as well."
Famed hacker Charlie Miller discovered the flaw and told Apple about it six weeks ago. The company has not issued a fix, so Miller will pressure Apple by showing exactly how to hijack the iPhone at a cybersecurity conference on Thursday. Calls to Apple from CBS 5 have not been returned as of Wednesday night.
At the Apple Store in Los Gatos, reaction from iPhone owners was of disbelief and worry.
"I have everything on it, so that's pretty major," said one iPhone user.
"It's kind of scary," said iPhone user Eric Castellanos. "You have all your information on here: your e-mails, your contacts, your pictures, everything on here. For that to happen, it's kind of scary, like stealing your life or something."
For now, there's not much you can do to protect yourself. If or when you get the text message, turn the phone off.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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