iPhone now blocks jailbreak attempts

Tech giant Apple has seemingly caught on to the number of users exploiting the company’s iPhone device through the “jailbreak” method and is now shipping units with a new function to stop the practice.

Jailbreaking allows users to run unauthorised apps and make the iPhone do certain things Apple does not allow, including running apps in the background of other apps and customising the “home screen” appearance.

A user jailbreaks an iPhone device by running a piece of unauthorised coding that will change the functionality of the device. But the new phones have a chip that, when starting up, will check each piece of code to make sure it works as designed.

However, some tech analysts have pointed out that iPhones will still be able to run jailbroken software, but they will have to be booted up with the assistance of a computer or some type of hardware.

Others suggest hackers will quickly be able to come up with new jailbreaking software that will bypass Apple’s new hardware.