21-year-old Ashley Town had last week created a harmless virus that attacked 'jailbreak' iPhones all over Australia and changed the users' current wallpapers to a picture of the 80s singer Rick Astley. Now, a more malicious worm has been let loose, which takes advantage of the same vulnerability that was identified by the youngster. Only, this one actually attacks sensitive private information like text messages, internet bookmarks and contacts.

Security firm Intego has dubbed the new virus the 'iPhone/Privacy A'. A jailbreak iPhone or iPod Touch is highly vulnerable to it as these generally have an unchanged "root password", as explained by Apple in its official blog. It has been estimated as many as 8% of the total iPhones around are jailbreak and therefore at high risk.

"When connecting to a jailbroken iPhone, this tool allows a hacker to silently copy a treasure trove of user data from a compromised iPhone: email, contacts, SMSs, calendars, photos, music files, videos, as well as any data recorded by any iPhone app", explains the Apple blog. Jailbreak iPhones are those which have been installed with software which lets users’ cracker open the operating system's internal files, thereby allowing access and installation of unapproved application.

As the new virus grips more and more iPhones across the country, authorities are racing to warn users and combat the problem. Ashley Town's prank has taken a more sinister turn, and the boy now says that he "regrets" what he has done, and has been bombarded with "death threats and non-stop phone calls".