According to the latest figures from Eurostat and Dutch Daily News, the Dutch are Europe’s most avid Internet users.

73% of the Dutch use the Internet daily or almost daily, while the percentage reaches 90% for the country’s under 24 population.

This leaves other countries behind the Netherlands, while Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg also rank high.

The Dutch also have the largest percentage of households with Internet access at an outstanding 90%, with Sweden and Luxembourg the closest behind. Europe’s heavyweights the UK, Germany and France maintain 77%, 79% and 63% respectively.

The research also concluded that The Netherlands contained the highest number of people who had used the Internet for finding information.

The good news for Europe is that as a whole, there’s been steady improvement in connectivity. 65% of households had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 60% during the first quarter of 2008, and 56% have a broadband internet connection in 2009, compared with 49% in 2008.

Finally, in regards to e-commerce, nearly 40% of Europeans are now shopping online with the UK being the most active.

Jailbreaking your iPhone can provide increased functionality and less restrictions but it also seems it can now also bring with it a massive security risk.

There are reports that an enterprising Dutch hacker has preyed on many handsets operated by T-Mobile Netherlands, issuing notices that alert the user that their iPhone is vulnerable unless they paid €5 for a fix.

It is thought that the vulnerability centres on a feature of the jailbreak itself, the enabling of a SSH (Secure Shell) service that has a default root password. The attacker was able to determine which jailbroken devices were viable by performing a port scan on the T-Mobile network, issuing the default password when prompted. Many Windows and Mac applications automate the jailbreaking process meaning many users don’t have the necessary technical skills to identify any vulnerabilities on their device and then deal with them once noted.

Compromised iPhone’s would read the following message:

Your iPhone’s been hacked because it’s really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files.

When the user visits the website, they are directed to a PayPal page with a prompt to pay the €5. Once the funds are sent, the hacker would then send the instructions to patch the vulnerability, requiring the user to download an SSH client for their desktop and issue a few remote commands.

There was one further development when affected users started looking to forums for advice. The hacker had a slight sense of remorse and posted instructions on how to patch the hole, identifying the fact that attacker was probably more of an opportunist rather than a malicious criminal.

Apple may see this incident as yet another reason that iPhone users should not take to jailbreaking their devices. Out of the box, the iPhone is equipped to deal with security vulnerabilities but when you jailbreak, security suddenly becomes your problem.