Jailbroken iPhones in the Netherlands are now exposed to a malicious worm that may steal your data and rob you of your Dutch-based ING Direct account. Viruses and worms on mobile devices have so far been a rare occurrence, but the rise in popularity of the iPhone has made this popular handset an easy target for hackers and opportunists. Like the previous non-malicious, but threatening, worm, this one attacks the iPhone via way of an SSH vulnerability left open by jailbreakers. The prior worm was not malicious, whereas this new worm invades your phone by placing a login page for ING-Direct; users who log into their ING Direct account this way will have their credentials stolen.

For those who aren’t familiar with the iPhone platform, the jailbreaking community could be compared to the folks at XDA-Developers who demand more functionality from the tight-gripped Apple product. Jailbreakers create mods, tweaks, hacks, and unlock solutions to breathe additional life into their devices that they otherwise wouldn’t get from an un-jailbroken, stock device. Such functionality include multi-tasking, custom backgrounds, widgets, and more.

As the smartphone market continue to expand, worms, viruses, and malicious threats on mobile devices may continue to rise in the future.

(via: Engadget Mobile)