In 2015, there were several instances in which one could accidentally make a call out to 911 without meaning to do so. For example asking Siri about the incident of 9/11 would have dialed out to 911 instead, or asking Siri to charge your iPhone to 100% would also for some reason dial out to 911.Those were genuine accidents, but it seems that an 18-year old teen by the name of Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai has recently been arrested for allegedly posting a link online that would force an iPhone to call 911 nonstop. Several nights ago, a 911 center in Surprise, Arizona received over 100 calls within a matter of minutes.
This was later eventually traced back to a website owned by Desai in which he posted a link that would force iPhones to make repeated calls to 911. Desai told police that he learnt about the bug that would force the calls from a friend, and then figured out how to exploit it using JavaScript code which was then posted on his website.
Desai has since been arrested for three counts of felony computer tampering. Normally you would think that such an exploit would be publicized to bring it to Apple’s attention, but apparently it was simply done just for fame and glory. According to a statement by the sheriff, “Meet [Desai] later claimed that he developed these malicious bugs and viruses to be recognized in the hacker and programming community as someone who was very skilled.”