An Arizona-based teenager has been arrested by the local police for disrupting 911 services using an iPhone hack that made random blank calls to the emergency number.
According to the Maricopa County Sherrif"s Office, the teenager, Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai hosted and shared a JavaScript code which made simultaneous phone calls to the 911 service. The police have revealed that the hack affected services in the Phoenix metro area, parts of California and Texas.
Desai revealed that he had been provided with the details of the bug by an online friend and had no intention of releasing the code to the public. He reportedly worked on two versions of the said exploit, one which made the phone calls and another which showed "annoying" pop-ups. The malicious code was published through a Twitter account and a YouTube channel which were traced back to Meet Desai, and it was hosted on a URL called "The real hackspot", which was also linked to Meet"s website.
On further interrogation, Meet said that he wanted to be recognized in the hacker community so he created various bugs and viruses and posted them on online communities. He also claimed that he wanted to report bugs to Apple and get paid. The police have charged him on three counts and two of these are Class 2 felonies, which would be tough for the accused to defend.
Unfortunately, for the teen, his efforts did not qualify him for remuneration under any of the five risk and reward categories in Apple"s bug bounty program.
While it may be possible that the teenager intended the hack to be a prank, we can never be sure as there have been incidents of younger people involved in deliberate disruptions, in the past.
Source: Maricopa County via IBTimes, Ars Technica | Hacker at Work with Graphic User Interface image via Shutterstock