November has been an interesting month for iPhone users with an initial harmless virus appearing near the beginning of the month which morphed into a more malicious one by month's end. The initial 'ikee' virus simply replaced the phone's wallpaper with a photo of the 80's pop singer Rick Astley. Fortunately this virus only affected jailbroken iPhones, who's users did not change the default SSH passwords. This code for this virus was deliberately distributed by its creator as a wake up call to all iPhone users who chose to jailbreak their phones without understanding the ramifications of doing it properly (i.e. making sure you change the default passwords).

Unfortunately the source got into the hands of malicious hackers who morphed it into the iPhone 'Duh' virus. This virus is designed to steal online banking passwords and scrape the user's SMS messages. It is basically a phishing attack whereby it dupes iPhone users visiting their online banking website with a phoney look-alike to steal their passwords. There have been confirmed reports of this happening in the Netherlands with users accessing ING online banking from their phones.

While these viruses have only targeted the small percentage of iPhones that have been jailbroken it does highlight the risks that smartphones will face more and more as they become the tool of choice for consumers to stay connected online. This should not be overlooked by the mobile financial services community and it would be wise for the leaders in this space to begin to offer solutions towards thwarting these types of threats before they become a reality.

For any of you who were unfortunate to be infected with the 'Duh' virus, here are some good instructions on how you can remove it off your iPhones....