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Emerging Mobile News

Security systems can now block the first computer viruses attack on cell phones, but the mobile industry sees new risks stemming from upcoming open software platforms such as Google's Android.

Since 2004, viruses have been able to disable phones or swell phone bills through pricey messages or unwanted calls, leading to a new security technology market.

"If Android becomes a fully open platform ... and when such a platform becomes more common, risks are greater than with the current platform kings such as Symbian.

Security specialists also pointed to potential risks arising from Apple's plans to open its software platform to third party developers this month.

"Apple has dealt very elegantly in the past with security issues. There will be issues. Apple will fix them," said a global marketing head at McAfee's mobile unit.

Roughly 65 percent of all smart phones sold in the fourth quarter used software from British supplier Symbian, according to research firms.

Apple was fourth largest vendor with 7 percent of the market, following Microsoft and RIM.

F-Secure and McAfee have been the leading security software vendors for mobiles, but many other anti-virus firms rolled out products for the mobile industry over the last few years.

While the risk of a cell phone getting infected is still relatively small, thousands of phones have seen problems.

"Although the first problems were already quite extensive and appeared all over the world, current smart phones from the largest device makers, particularly Nokia, have gotten rid of these problems.

Almost three out of four users were concerned about the safety of using new mobile services, showed a survey of 2,000 cell phone users, commissioned by McAfee, and unveiled this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"Concerns about specific mobile security risks or ... reliability of services is a crucial issue for operators, particularly in mature markets.

Mobile service providers are increasingly betting on new data services when looking for growth in mature markets where call prices are falling.

"Consumer fears are growing in tandem with increased mobile functionality; this puts at risk the potential revenue from new services.

One in seven global mobile users have already been exposed to mobile viruses, either directly or they know someone whose phone has been infected, McAfee's study showed.

Since the first mobile virus appeared in 2004 the number of different viruses, worms or other types of malware has reached 395, F-Secure said, adding that the number of malware has increased only slightly in the last 12 months.

History
The first instance of a mobile virus occurred in June 2004 when it was discovered that a company called Ojam had engineered an anti-piracy Trojan virus in older versions of their mobile phone game Mosquito.

This virus sent SMS text messages to the company without the user's knowledge. This virus was removed from more recent versions of the game; however it still exists on older, unlicensed versions. These older versions may still be distributed on file-sharing networks and free software download web sites.

In July 2004, computer hobbyists released a proof-of-concept mobile virus named Cabir. This virus replicates itself on Bluetooth wireless networks.

In March 2005 it was reported that a computer worm called Commwarrior-A has been infecting Symbian series 60 mobile phones. This worm replicates itself through the phone's Multimedia Messaging System (MMS). It sends copies of itself to other phone owners listed in the phone user's address book. Although the worm is not considered harmful, experts agree that it heralds a new age of electronic attacks on mobile phones.

Common mobile viruses

Cabir: Infects mobile phones running on Symbian OS. When a phone is infected, the message 'Caribe' is displayed on the phone's display and is displayed every time the phone is turned on.

The worm then attempts to spread to other phones in the area using wireless Bluetooth signals.
Duts: A parasitic file infector virus and is the first known virus for the Pocket PC platform. It attempts to infect all EXE files in the current directory (infects files that are bigger than 4096 bytes)

Skulls: A Trojan horse piece of code. Once downloaded, the virus, called Skulls, replaces all phone desktop icons with images of a skull. It also renders all phone applications, including SMSes and MMSes useless Commwarrior.

First worm to use MMS messages in order to spread to other devices. Can spread through Bluetooth too. It infects devices running under OS Symbian Series 60. The executable worm file once launched hunts for accessible Bluetooth devices and sends the infected files under a random name to various devices.

Help protect yourself against mobile viruses

Some mobile viruses -- that is, viruses that infect Smart phones, cell phones, and handheld PCs -- spread in the same way as traditional computer viruses, namely when you download programs or files that are already infected.

In the case of mobile phones, that might mean downloading photos, video clips, ring tones, cell phone themes, or other programs.

Important: Currently, we are not aware of any viruses that can be transferred from your laptop or your desktop to your Windows Mobile-based device.

Other mobile viruses can spread like human viruses do by close contact in the presence of the right host. Some cell phones are equipped with Bluetooth, a technology that allows you to transfer data between different devices, such as sending photos from your cell phone to your printer or transferring addresses stored on your Windows Mobile device to your laptop.

This handy technology comes with a few risks if you don't use it correctly. If you have Bluetooth enabled on your mobile device and in "discoverable mode" (see the manual that came with your device for more information), and you come within 30 feet of another infected device that also has Bluetooth enabled and is running the same operating system as your mobile device, then you might get infected.



The Mobi Blog for Emerging Mobile News 2008