An 18 year old teen Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai was arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit for flooding the 911 emergency system with hang-up calls. He was also booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on three counts of felony computer tampering on Monday.
How Did He Make This Happen?
Desai created a JavaScript exploit which he shared on Twitter and other websites with his friends. People accessing the link shared by him from iOS devices (such as iPads and iPhones) saw their devices automatically dial and redial 911. He shared the link on Twitter with over 12,000 followers where over 1,849 people have clicked on the link.
On investigating Desai said that he was only interested in discovering bugs in iOS, which he could report to Apple and possibly earn money or recognition among his friends. He added that he received a tip about a bug in iOS, which he successfully exploited.
However during his tests he was able to created several weaponized versions of this bug which would constantly dial a phone number or show annoying popups. The teenager said that by mistake he shared the weaponized link online, he shared a version that instead of showing annoying popups, redialed a phone number, which in this case was 911.