iPhone Worm Creator Snags App Dev Job
9:04 am, November 27th, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
The 21-year-old Australian guy who got chewed out by his parents for launching the first iPhone worm landed a job with an app company.
Ashley Towns wrote Ikee, calling it an “experiment that got out of hand,” a worm that switched iPhone wallpaper for an image of 80s pop singer Rick Astley. Astley, who sang the 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” who morphed into the Internet prank known as “Rickrolling.” The bait-and-switch worm replaces an ordinary video with one of Astley.
The day after the worm infected jailbroken iPhones, Towns said he had received a death threat, media attention and job offers.
The BBC reports now that Towns signed on with mogeneration, an Australian app company with four apps currently available at iTunes, two are kid distractors and two are restaurant finders.
The worm Towns created wasn’t but opened the door for a nasty worm targeting online banking customers of ING.
“It leaves a nasty taste that he has been rewarded like this, yet has not even expressed regret for his actions,” Graham Cluley of Security firm Sophos told BBC News.
Towns said he created the virus to raise the issue of security. He did not face any criminal charges.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone Apps | Comment on this article
the reaction of this Graham Cluley of Security firm Sophos is similar to suing someone after that person sprains someone else’s finger in the act of saving their life.
the fact that this information comes out after more vicious worms have popped up makes his comment even more ignorant.
Peter Kennedy, on November 27th, 2009 at 10:37 am
It figures Ashley is just an attention-craving Emo punk.
Zedd, on November 27th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
That kid is a legend. Most of the people reading this post don’t have the guts or intelligence to do something like that.
On top of that he’s contained (for the most part). Should they have made a martyr out of him so 50 wannabes could pop up in his place?
I also want it to be clear I am no way a fan of Rick Astley
Scott, on December 9th, 2009 at 12:55 am