Although it was recently authorized by the U.S. government to jailbreak iPhones and other devices, Apple isn't giving up. As it stands now, Apple automatically revokes the warranty on all iPhones that have been jailbroken or hacked. Now Apple filed for a patent that would have give them the capability to disable jailbroken iPhones.
The patent primarily focuses on identifying stolen devices and protecting the sensitive information that may be stored on them, but also covers methods for identifying the devices that may have been hacked, jailbroken, or unlocked.
In theory, according to Mashable.com, Apple could wipe all the personal data from these phones, and then alert AT&T to shutdown services to these devices.
