The latest cellphones come with a whole range of smart tricks, including the ability to catch viruses. They can pick up e-mail, access the Internet, play games, arrange your calendar — and now the latest ”smart phones” have moved another step closer to the PC; they, too, can pick up viruses.
Recently, the first such cellphone virus was sent to anti-virus companies by a group of hackers. They were aiming to show that the latest multimedia handsets are vulnerable to the sort of virus attacks that have blighted computer users.
The cellphone virus in question is harmless and simply puts a message on the phone’s screen asking if the user wants to load a security update. If they say ”Yes” instead of ”No”, the word Cabir is put on the screen. The word Caribe, which is featured in the virus’s code, also sometimes appears.
The bug is confined in the laboratories of the anti-virus companies to whom it was sent by the group of secretive hackers — called 29A. It can only be spread on the latest Nokia Series 60 phones that run the Symbian operating platform. This software is designed to allow the phone to run complex programs that most cellphones are not powerful enough to support.
Given the trend towards ever more sophisticated phones that offer e-mail and Internet access as well as calendar and gaming facilities, experts are warning that cellphones are now far too ”smart” for their own good and need protecting just like a PC. Although the Cabir virus is harmless, the cellphone industry is bracing itself for a wave of attacks from viruses that will not be so benign.
”Among hackers and virus writers there’s a real sense of achievement for being the first to penetrate a system,” says Peter Simpson, who runs the London-based anti-virus company Clearswift’s ThreatLab.
”That’s why 29A have put up on their website a big article congratulating their newest member called Vallez as the first to write a virus for Symbian phones.
”They’re not a dangerous group themselves because they’re basically anoraks who show how systems can be beaten. The problem comes from the releasing of their code, which can be used maliciously by other people.”
This could lead to viruses that ”trash” a phone so it cannot operate, or that steal its identity and make premium-rate calls, landing the owner with a huge bill.
There is the feeling that the cellphone now mirrors how the Internet has developed over the past two or three years — blighted with viruses as people get faster connections and download more information.
”It is going to be very confusing for cellphone users because at the same time as they’re being told to enjoy new features on the latest handsets they are not aware they are going to need to treat their cellphone as they do their PC,” says Jack Clark, a consultant at international anti-virus company, McAfee.
”There needs to be an education process that tells people that they need to have their phone as well as their PC protected.” — Â