Apple iOS 5 easily jailbroken, mounting security woe

A day after its release, Apple iOS 5 has already been hacked.

Apple's new iOS 5 operating system was not to be released for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch until 2011 fall. But apparently a backdoor was left open, where one eager beaver from Turkey has figured out how to install iOS 5 without a developer account.

At WWDC, the very day of its announcement marked the first beta release of iOS 5 system for developers, already reputed as beating BlackBerry and Android OS phones with its simplicity and power.

You can perhaps taste its sweetness too, sooner than expected.

One Apple amateur developer Mert Erdir discovered that he could upgrade to the new OS without a $99/year developer's account, reported Gizmodo. Erdir then tweeted a video with instructions for the upgrade.

The hack involves installing the beta release of iTunes 10.5, an iOS device firmware update, and upgrading to iOS 5 by tricking the operating system's Voice Over feature. It's a simple process for users already familiar with hacking their iOS devices.

Erdir did not mean to harm anyone, but he just wanted to get the attention of Apple, the company I'm in love with, he told Gizmodo. He dreams of a chance to meet Steve Jobs one day.

At around midnight Tuesday, though, Erdir tweeted, I think Apple sent an update Over The Air to fix my workaround, closing the backdoor he found. Coming back from school, Erdir is trying to find a way to reopen it.

Gizmodo warned the users who want to attempt this hack, stating, Once completed, you will not be able to connect to a carrier. Proceed at your own risk. The hack involves some risk of screwing up your Mac device.

Following Erdir's hack, a prominent iPhone hacker also confirmed that iOS 5 is easily jailbroken, and users can run apps unapproved by Apple and tweak their iPhones in many ways. MuscleNerd, a member of the rogue group of iOS developers known as the iPhone Dev Team, succeeded in jailbreaking iOS 5, taking advantage of the existing limera1n exploit, reported ReadWriteWeb. Unfortunately, it is a tethered jailbreak, which means you will have to connect (or tether) your iOS device to a computer every time you reboot your device, if you want to maintain the jailbreak.

iOS 5 hacks exacerbates the existent concern over the recent security woe spreading to Apple, adding to the reported hacks on iTunes and breaches of the cloud space in Sony, Google and Amazon over the past few months.

Will iCloud be the next target of hackers?