Talk:Jailbreaking/@comment-24715973-20141209054357/@comment-24886041-20141209174213

Jailbreaking is anything from 100% safe. Jailbreaking involves exploiting a bug in the software on your device to load unsigned content. After doing so, first thing you need to do is change the root and mobile passwords from 'alpine' to something you choose yourself, because otherwise, you could have some software completely take control of your device just by visiting a site in Safari.

I'm not sure if you heard of WireLurker, but it's a piece of malware that was being distributed on a Chinese App Store that would install on your computer, and when your iOS device synced dto it, if it was jailbroken, it would install a "helper" library that would monitor your activity and send contact info and access credentials (including for your Apple ID) to a third party. This was also able to hit people who used enterprise provisioning in a limited way.

A jailbroken device can still be safer than a general purpose computer system if handled responsibly, but it's anything but safe. Better to know what you're getting into and prepare accordingly than to hide behind "I've never gotten a virus!  It's safe!"