After the announcement that iPhone jailbreaking is now legal in the United States, a malware-spreading campaign targeting “iPhone unlocking” fans confirms that cybercriminals never lack imagination.

Owners of iPhones are one step closer to taking total control of their widgets, after the U.S. Copyright Office announced the practice of “jailbreaking” legal, on Monday, July 26th. Now, anyone can jailbreak or unlock any cell phone without fear of legal repercussions. BitDefender®, an award-winning provider of innovative internet security solutions, is today advising iPhone unlocking fans to pay particular attention to the software they download for this operation.

BitDefender has identified a malware distribution campaign in which users receive an email where they find out they could receive a new application for iPhone jailbreaking. All the email recipient has to do is click a link that will take them to the webpage where the desired software awaits.

As the email recipient goes further into this labyrinth and clicks the link, an exe file attempts to download to their computer. But once saved and run, the executable opens the way for a Trojan.

Identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Generic.3010833, this piece of malware is a keylogger that transmits everything the user writes on the computer to a specific email address, in this particular case to directory[REMOVED]@hotmail.com.

This allows the malware creators to intercept the victim’s visited sites, usernames, passwords, and bank accounts information – such as pin number, bank account numbers, passwords, etc.

In order to stay safe, BitDefender recommends that users never open suspicious links or attachments without scanning them first. It’s also advised to install and update a complete antimalware software solution.

BitDefender Total Security 2010 (1 user – 1 year) + Free 1 Diskeeper Pro