Hacking e-mails is nothing new, and recently, one hacker went after celebrities and their iPhones.

The hacker, Kwamaine F. of Georgia, began targeting celebrities with a phishing scheme, pretending to be an Apple support representative needing logins, passwords, and/or the answers to security questions.

Victims included famous musicians as well as college and professional athletes, including people in the NBA and NFL, according to the Justice Department.

The hacker convinced these celebrities that it was necessary to reset an account, and he set about hijacking accounts by resetting passwords, changing email contacts, and editing security questions.

In turn, the hacker gained access to the credit cards of several people, which were used to rack up thousands of dollars in furniture, travel expenses and money transfers.

The hacker was originally indicted on six counts, including charges of wire fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

In the end, he pleaded guilty to just one count of computer fraud and one count of identity theft.

The reality is, one of the reasons the iPhone is so popular is that Apple makes security a priority.

However, a trend has reemerged where iPhone users are “jailbreaking” their phones as a way to add more customized features and apps.

In the iPhone’s early days, users would “jailbreak” the iPhone in order to install third-party apps that weren’t available through the Apple App Store.

It’s been a while since anyone really needed to jailbreak their iPhone, as there are plenty of apps and more customizable operating systems to choose from.

But, with the latest iPhone iOS update, hackers dusted off their jailbreaking skills when a vulnerability was discovered.

The latest version of iOS reintroduced a bug that was fixed in iOS 12.3. The problem is, the bug makes it easier to hack iPhones.

One security researcher claims that someone could use this vulnerability to make a virus infected app that could steal data from other apps on a user’s phone.

Since jailbreaking your Smartphone is surging in popularity again, I want to share with you a few reasons why you want to avoid doing this to your phone, or even buying a phone that is “jailbroken.”

In fact, some retailers sell used Smartphones that are jailbroken, which you want to ask about before purchasing.

The smartphone operates slower. Since jailbroken app developers don’t have to follow memory and CPU usage guidelines set by Apple, the end result might be reduced battery life, slower performance and possible random reboots.

Performance management apps are available for jailbroken iPhones, but you may have to configure different settings if the phone has problems or randomly turns off.

You lose your warranty. Apple doesn’t provide support for jailbroken iPhones.

If Apple finds out that you went through that process, it won’t honor your warranty and it may not matter if the issue you’re requesting service for isn’t related to the operation of the phone.

For instance, Apple could deny a warranty related to a broken screen, even though it has nothing to do with the fact that the phone is jailbroken.

Opens your phone up to malware. The Apple security team doesn’t play a role in reviewing the code of non-App Store software, so you must rely on developers to police their code for potential security vulnerabilities.

Malware developers may also create iPhone-specific viruses, spyware, and other malware disguised as legitimate apps.

If you jailbreak your iPhone, you are losing security features and opening the possibility of downloading a virus.

The fact is, jailbreaking is a hack that seems to promise free apps, extra features, and better performance for your smartphone, but it instead removes essential security features from your device, leaving you vulnerable to stalkers, hackers, and thefts.