Security experts cry foul as iPhone worm developer lands job with smartphone app development firm

The author of the first iPhone worm has landed a job with Australian iPhone app developer Mogeneration, much to the chagrin of security experts.

Ashley Towns, 21 wrote on his Twitter feed today that he had landed the job at the firm which calls itself Australia's 'iPhone development company''. 

The so-named Ikee worm appeared two weeks ago targeting jail-broken iPhones. The worm by itself is not malicious, but is believed to have prepared the groundwork for the more dangerous Duh worm, which surfaced over the weekend. The Duh worm is designed to steal online banking credentials. 

According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, the hiring of a known hacker has sent out wrong signals. However, he says in his blog post that he is not against rehabilitation of virus writers to enable them to do something worthwhile in their lives.

Cluley says that it was jarring to him that Towns had shown no regret for his action and that his irresponsible behaviour appeared to have been rewarded. 

Similarly, peeved about the appointment is a security expert Rik Ferguson who says the appointment comes as a PR stunt by the employer. He says that he could see no compelling reason to appoint the hacker.