The scam plays on the fears that users have of their device encountering technical issues, and criminal groups are charging unsuspecting people up to £50 over the phone to get their devices back to full functionality, in spite of the fact that there is nothing really wrong with them.

This nefarious approach to scamming phone owners first took off in the US but has since been reported by British users, with a message popping up on screen and encouraging them to call an 0800 number because their device has allegedly ‘crashed’.

The alert, which appears when users visit particular sites in Safari, even claims that third-party apps are to blame for the problems and claims that if users do not call the number of get it ‘repaired’, they will end up losing personal information.

In reality, anyone who makes a call to the number shown on screen will be put through to someone who requests their payment card information and will proceed to take money from their account.

This kind of identity theft can be effective if the people being targeted are uncertain about how their device works and are concerned that they need to get their handset repaired as quickly as possible. And because the issue is software-based rather than hardware-based, customers may not think to take their device to an official Apple store or a reputable repair outlet.

In this instance, replacing iPhone parts will not make a difference because the scam occurs as a result of a pop-up message which cannot seem to be removed as long as the handset is connected to the internet.

The work-around for this which some users have found is to activate airplane mode from the settings menu, and then clear the Safari browser’s history and cookies. Those who have yet to be impacted by the message are advised to de-activate the option to display pop-ups when using Safari, as this will prevent the alert from ever appearing.

Privacy issues such as this loom large in the mobile market whenever a high-profile case comes to light. And where fraud against the iPhone parts ways with traditional email phishing scams is that it can appear to take over an entire device, leaving users at the mercy of the scammers.

Giving financial details to third parties over the phone is always a bad idea, but it is perfectly possible to see how people might be duped by this, especially if they do not know about how Apple’s mobile ecosystem operates. Hopefully, by bringing this story to light, fewer people will fall foul of what is undoubtedly a particularly malignant example of major mobile fraud.

The penetration test is an industry standard security test to determine the security level of an IT infrastructure by attempting to exploit a number of vulnerabilities (with the appropriate authorization) of the system including but not limited to; the operating system, application flaws, configurations and potential end-user behavior that could pose risk. By deliberately attempting to hack into their own system technicians can assess the efficiency of their defensive mechanisms and so can better manage their systems by spotting potential vulnerabilities before they are exploited by hackers.

Ordinarily tests would be performed manually by an in-house security technician or an independent security consultant service with the help of automated technologies and software designed to simultaneously attack the system’s network, its devices, servers, applications and other points of weakness. If any vulnerabilities are found then technicians will attempt to see how far they can penetrate into the system to see what else could potentially be exploited. The information gathered from these tests is then compiled and presented to IT and network managers in order to advise them on how secure their infrastructure is and priorities areas which need to be secured further and to revise practice and procedures.

This may seem like a lot of work for something that bears very little fruit however nothing could be further from the truth: a 2014 study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, it was concluded that a data breach costs the affected company $3.5million in direct losses; this includes the financial effects of negative press, loss of customers as well as legal fines and penalties, not to mention the value of the data itself that has been lost.

Although there is no set standard as to how often penetration testing should be performed it is strongly advised that they be run on a regular basis to ensure consistent network management and to discover and remedy new threats posed to IT systems before they are exploited by attackers. It is strongly advised that penetration tests should be performed whenever; new network infrastructure added or altered, new office or network locations are established, new security patches have been applied and if end-user policies are modified.

Not only does penetration testing allow network managers to efficiently deal with the risks posed by network vulnerabilities, it also profits the organisation by reducing periods of network down-time for maintenance, helps to avoid fines posed by the government and other regulating authorities for failing to meet security requirements, but also helps to preserve customer loyalty. All in all it is something that every business should be investing in.