KM Viray
Apple’s iOS 8 operating system has a bug that allows malicious hackers to deliberately crash any iPhone or iPad within range of a WiFi hotspot. Using only a simple text message, anyone can send a specific set of characters to another iPhone which will crash their device on purpose and even block other messages from going through. This may also cause the recipient’s phone to continuously crash and reboot. The trick won’t work on people who have an Android or Windows phone.
Though it was tested on a number of iPhones and iPads, not all had the same effects. Nonetheless, to protect yourself from the phone-crashing text, simply switch off notifications for messages. If you, however, have already received and read the text sequence, you can undo the damage by replying with a message. In addition, if you have a Mac with iMessage enabled, you can open the message and reply to the sender this way, too. The latest update from Apple is that they’ve already discovered the bug and are working on removing it, the results of which will appear in the next software update.
Just know that if anyone does send this iPhone-crashing text message to you, he’s really doing it on purpose since the characters are really unusual. Expect to receive this from your prankster friends–or your enemies.
Banner photo from appsminds.com.
