There’s never been a more audacious fella in the world of hacking than Jon Johansen. At a tender age of 23 he’s built up an impressive r’sum’. Within days after it’s release, iPhone is already on his hit list. The Norwegian hacker has claimed that he can bypass AT&T Inc.’s network in order to use the phone’s music and internet features. This is basically going to be a backdoor entry to the iphone world for the users.
The scariest part is Johansen claims that he can activate an iPhone without any subscription. (good news for some of the poorer geeks out there, not so much for the corporations involved.) He says:
I’ve found a way to activate a brand new unactivated iPhone
The 23 year old Jon also adds that his work is completely legal in his country.Norway ‘ hacker’s paradise; that’s a new one for me!
Known as DVD Jon, he has made softwares that crack codes allowing users copy DVDs online. Surprisingly though, AT&T and Apple don’t have any problem with people hacking into this new technology.
Mark Siegel (AT & T spokesperson) mentions:
Any other use of the device is not authorized and we can’t guarantee the device will perform as intended to. We’ll monitor situations like this and if necessary we will take appropriate action. Our terms and conditions are very clear
This is just a way of saying, Apple has laid down it’s policy strictly. So it won’t twitch the policy for sure. It seems like they are a little slow in taking action.
I think this is sheer stupidity on the part of the two major companies. They probably haven’t realized the implications of this hacking. Once something major screws up in the iPhone busines, I am sure AT&T will pound on Jon for hacking. But, not till then.
DVD Jon couldn’t really hack into the ‘phone facility’ of the iPhone. However, he did manage to activate the internet and iTunes. Also, in order to establish his dominance after hacking into the NT, he rightly named his blog ‘So Sue me’. He ain’t no Kevin Mitnick but he is a geek for sure.
Apple denied to comment on Johansen’s actions. Also, Apple hasn’t released the iPhone outside the US yet. Hopefully, they will make the network more secure to prevent phishing and unauthorized hacking like this in future.