The second iPhone worm of the week carries with it a lot more risk than the first one. According to Intego Security, this new iPhone worm that is known as iPhone/Privacy.A uses the same hole that ikeeex found a few days ago to change the hacked iPhones’ background image into Rick Astley’s photo. The new iPhone worm, however, is a more serious one because it allows the hacker to install software without going through iTunes.

The new worm bypasses iTunes in jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches and copy private data. These data include e-mail, contacts, SMSs, photos, music files, videos, calendar entries and saved data from apps. Intego explains:

Hackers using this tool will install it on a computer – Mac, PC, Unix or Linux – then let it work. It scans the network accessible to it, and when it finds a jailbroken iPhone, breaks into it, then steals data and records it.

This hacker tool could easily be installed, for example, on a computer on display in a retail store, which could then scan all iPhones that pass within the reach of its network. Or, a hacker could sit in an Internet café and let his computer scan all iPhones that come within the range of the wifi network in search of data. Hackers could even install this tool on their own iPhones, and use it to scan for jailbroken phones as they go about their daily business.

Intego recommends its own VirusBarrier X5 for the iPhone/Privacy.A malware. Also, you can simply change the SSH password. iPhone jailbreak is common to six to eight per cent of iPhone users.

[intego via mobilecrunch]