Thousands of iPhones hit by new malware

A new malware targeting Apple's iOS may have wormed its way to as many as 75,000 iPhones, a security vendor said over the weekend.

 

Sophos cited an iOS malware analysis of the malware dubbed "iPh/AdThief-A" in specialist threat research publication Virus Bulletin (VB).

 

In a blog post, it said the new malware appears to be made for online ad fraud, though it affects only jailbroken devices.

 

"According to VB, that's exactly what AdThief does, waiting for you to click on someone else's ad with someone else's affiliate code, and then putting the crook's affiliate code in there instead," it said.

 

Affiliate codes provide advertisers referral fees from the ad network, but the fees could go to a crook who switches out an affiliate code for his or her own.

 

Sophos said such malware could become widespread due to several apps, especially games, using in-app ads.

 

But AdThief has allegedly already infected about 75,000 jailbroken devices.

 

"Even if the malware is only able to squeeze one cent a day in ad revenue out of 10% of its victims, that nevertheless comes out at a very handy $30,000 per year," it said.

 

Sophos advised iPhone users to avoid jailbreaking their devices, and system administrators to avoid letting jailbroken phones onto their networks. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News