• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it

2

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI

3

China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation

1

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it

2

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI

3

China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
TechWorld's Most Admired Companies

‘Evil’ Hack Uses Wi-Fi to Destroy Your iPhone—Maybe

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 13, 2016, 1:12 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

If you haven’t updated to Apple’s iOS 9.3 yet, now’s the time.

Security experts have found a way for a malicious hacker to dupe unwitting iPhone or iPad owners into connecting to nefarious Wi-Fi networks and potentially bricking their devices. What’s worse, those security researchers, who include Brian Krebs, among others, say that the “evil” hack is shockingly “simple” for a hacker to wreak havoc on iOS device owners.

According to Krebs, iOS comes with a feature that automatically connects a device to a wireless network it’s previously connected to, which sits at the center of the problem.

“For example, to use Starbuck’s free Wi-Fi service, you’ll have to connect to a network called ‘attwifi,'” Krebs writes. “But once you’ve done that, you won’t ever have to manually connect to a network called ‘attwifi’ ever again. The next time you visit a Starbucks, just pull out your iPad and the device automagically connects.”

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The feature is designed to make it easier (and perhaps effortless) for users to connect to wireless networks. The trouble, however, is that bad actors could be creating malicious Wi-Fi hotspots to wreak havoc on a device.

According to the researchers, if a person operates a wireless network that has a familiar name that a device may have already connected to, it’s not that difficult to cause trouble on Apple’s (AAPL) handsets or tablets. In fact, they claim that the hackers would need only to send the devices through a server where they would “download time and date updates.” The server would then set the iOS device’s time to January 1, 1970 and watch as the smartphone or tablet came unglued.

“The iPads that were brought within range of the test (evil) network rebooted, and began to slowly self-destruct,” Krebs said, citing work from security researchers Patrick Kelley and Matt Harrigan. “Harrigan and Kelley said this apparently creates havoc with most of the applications built into the iPad and iPhone, and that the ensuing bedlam as applications on the device compete for resources quickly overwhelms the iPad’s computer processing power. So much so that within minutes, they found their test iPad had reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit, as the date and clock settings on the affected devices inexplicably and eerily began counting backwards.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because a similar issue was discovered in iOS earlier this year. At that time, another security researcher, Zach Straley, posted a video to YouTube, showing that if users manually change the date on their devices to January 1, 1970, their devices would be rendered useless. Apple patched that glitch in iOS 9.3. However, the researchers say that the Wi-Fi hack still affects iOS 9.3 users, as well as those running earlier versions of Apple’s operating system due to the way the time is changed on the device.

For more on iOS 9.3, watch:

Of course, Wi-Fi-based attacks are nothing new. Hackers have long used Wi-Fi access points as opportunities to hop onto a person’s computer, smartphone, or tablet, and cause trouble. This attack, though, isn’t aimed at getting information—it’s aimed solely at rendering your iOS devices useless.

That said, the researchers acknowledged that the attack is much easier to complete on an iPhone than an iPad. The issue with the iPhone, they say, is that it gets time from cell phone communications networks.

There’s also apparently some debate over whether the hack will actually brick an iPhone or iPad. Krebs notes that the researchers, who had been working with Apple before they went public with their findings, received word back from Apple that the company wasn’t able to get an iPad’s heat levels as high as they had. While the company was able to “brick” the device, Apple was able to restore it to iOS 9.3 via iTunes. Apple confirmed to Fortune on Wednesday that it did, in fact, restore the devices to iOS 9 and that the hardware’s temperature did not hit a critical level.

Regardless, at least there’s a fix: Apple squashed the bug in the iOS 9.3 update it released last month.

So, if you’re worried about someone messing with your iPhone or iPad, now might be the time to update to Apple’s latest software.

Update 1:55 p.m. to include Apple’s confirmation.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Palmer Luckey wearing a lime green shirt with his hands up gesturing
SuccessEducation
Anduril founder Palmer Luckey warns the U.S. university system is falling behind China’s: ‘It generates a lot of worker bees’
By Preston ForeJuly 8, 2026
2 hours ago
Rilla CEO Sebastian Jimenez
Successreturn to office
This CEO pays $1.7 million a year so employees can live in one of America’s most expensive neighborhoods
By Emma BurleighJuly 8, 2026
2 hours ago
Chinese companies are ditching Nvidia’s advanced accelerators for domestic AI suppliers
AsiaNvidia
Chinese companies are ditching Nvidia’s advanced accelerators for domestic AI suppliers
By Bloomberg and Gao YuanJuly 8, 2026
3 hours ago
Current price of Ethereum for July 8, 2026
Personal FinanceEthereum
Current price of Ethereum for July 8, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 8, 2026
4 hours ago
Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chief investment strategist of GMO LLC, during an interview on an episode of Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein in Boston, Massachusetts, US, on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023.
InvestingSpaceX
Famed investor Jeremy Grantham says history will end up laughing at SpaceX, the ‘craziest IPO in the history of man’ that just joined the Nasdaq 100
By Eleanor PringleJuly 8, 2026
4 hours ago
Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang
NewslettersTerm Sheet
The 38-point framework two VCs use to spot the next unicorn founder
By Allie GarfinkleJuly 8, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it
Success
Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it
By Preston ForeJuly 6, 2026
2 days ago
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI
AI
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 5, 2026
3 days ago
China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
Asia
China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
By Nicholas GordonJuly 7, 2026
1 day ago
Iran strikes 85 U.S. military sites in the Gulf, sparking a global selloff in stocks and a spike in the price of oil
Newsletters
Iran strikes 85 U.S. military sites in the Gulf, sparking a global selloff in stocks and a spike in the price of oil
By Jim EdwardsJuly 8, 2026
6 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 7, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 7, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 7, 2026
1 day ago
Presidents aren't supposed to pick winners, former White House ethics lawyer says. Trump keeps choosing Dell
Politics
Presidents aren't supposed to pick winners, former White House ethics lawyer says. Trump keeps choosing Dell
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 7, 2026
21 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.