Apple To Release Out of Band Security Patch for iPhone

After details of the iPhone Virus/Hack was released yesterday during a security conference by Charlie Miller, the iPhone cracker who discovered the hole, Apple has informed an O2 operator that a patch is on the way.

According to BBC the O2 spokesperson said the patch will be available this Saturday (tomorrow) through iTunes. It's not clear if this will be the new iPhone firmware update that everyone expects to be released in September.

Until the patch is released tomorrow, there are a few things that you can do to protect yourself:

1. Put your iPhone in Airplane mode. This means you won't be able to make calls or receive/send messages. You'll be dead in the water in terms of connectivity.
2. Power down your phone completely. Again, you'll be dead in the water and not even be able to play games :)
3. If you're using a jailbroken iPhone then you can SSH to your iPhone, navigate to the Applications directory and then remove all permissions from MobileSMS.app. This prevents SMS application from running on the phone.
4. This one, I am not sure if it will work or not but you could try disabling SMS in the parental controls. Again, this may or may not work.

Also, Tech Fragments user (Chisweet) suggested calling AT&T to have SMS turned off. This probably the best way so that your phone is still usable. Thanks for the tip!