While you have to go to quite some lengths to be vulnerable to it, jailbroken iPhones have been under fire for susceptibility to a particular SSH-based type of worm that has seen a lot of press lately. One of the developers, Ashley Towns, who helped to get the “rick” rolling, as it were, has just announced his employment at an iPhone game firm.

Sophos is reporting that he’ll be taking up shop at mogeneration, the developer responsible for such hits as Xumii [iTunes link], a cross-social networking communication app, and Moo Shake! [iTunes link], a farm-based activity game for kids. It is an interesting turn of events given that mogeneration even reported on the topic of Ashley’s now-infamous rickrolling iPhone worm.

I personally think that there is a lot of potential for coders of malware to embark on legitimate careers as developers coding for good. However, I don’t favor the thought that malware developers are essentially getting ‘rewarded’ for their dangerous work. There is nothing from mogeneration to imply that Towns was hired based on the notoriety of his SSH-based worm, but I can’t help thinking that there are other, more talented iPhone developers who have stayed below the radar by not writing malware.

I want to know what you think. Should developers of intentionally malicious software be given a clean slate and a new life? Or perhaps should they be feeling the effects of the law’s very long arms?

iPhone worm author really goes to work originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone worm author really goes to work originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

via | The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)