It was only a matter of time. First, jailbroken iPhones were humorously Rickrolled by a worm, and now both iPhones and Android phones have been exploited to form a botnet that is over 9,000 devices strong!

Fortunately, like the Rickroll, the botnet was a benign experiment by two researchers at TippingPoint Digital Vaccine Labs; a proof of concept, just to see how easy it would be. No one was harmed in the process, and the jailbroken devices were ultimately left unscathed. Those that downloaded the app — WeatherFist (seriously, that’s one awful name) — probably don’t even know that they were exploited!

Since I first saw WAR GAMES and read NEUROMANCER I have been fascinated by hacking and hackers. For better or worse, I had neither the patience or aptitude for doing it myself but I continue to find the concepts and real-world examples compelling.

If there is one thing that has become quite clear, however, its that most hacking takes advantage not of insane computer exploits but simple user stupidity – bad password selection, lack of updating securing patches, etc. It isn’t just that people are dumb, it’s that the technology they use is SO much more complicated than even a fairly smart person could ever hope to grasp.

As this story above shows, the way the hackers first got access in this case was via users voluntarily downloading and installing an app called WeatherFist.

Yeah, not so smart.