First mobile phone virus created

[Bugwart]

BBC Online this morning reported the creation of the first mobile phone virus.

The worm, known as Cabir (Caribe), infects phones and devices running the Symbian operating system.

Every time the mobile phone is turned on, the worm will launch itself and scan the area for other phones to infect, sending a copy of itself to any it finds.

The virus exploits Bluetooth to propagate.

A malicious mobile phone virus could wipe contact numbers and other data stored on the handset, as well as sending out messages purporting to come from the victim's phone.

"People need to take this seriously and in the same way as we protect our PCs, we need to protect our mobile phones," said Mr Piercy.

[twopiece]

Disturbing thought.

What's next, security patches for mobile phones?

[agentHibby]

Originally Posted by twopiece

Disturbing thought.

What's next, security patches for mobile phones?

Nokia needs them on their bluetooth phones.

[MOTOhooligan]

I liked this thread the first time I saw it when it was called Cabir Virus Affects Symbian OS here. But that's just me.

[bobolito]

Symbian? Oh well, I don't use a Nokia I'm safe!
Imagine a virus that will start to send SMS to everyone in your phonebook and run up your bill! That would be scary!

Now let's watch for McAfee Antivirus Mobile Edition!

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by bobolito

Now let's watch for McAfee Antivirus Mobile Edition!

You would have to make sure that you have the latest update to ensure your phone's safety.

[Shizam76]

This disturbes me......that people have no lives, therefore must try to throw wrenches in other people's. Why would someone start this? Are they mad at the cell company/phone maker? Or just want something "funny" to do?

[crood]

Originally Posted by Shizam76

This disturbes me......that people have no lives, therefore must try to throw wrenches in other people's. Why would someone start this? Are they mad at the cell company/phone maker? Or just want something "funny" to do?

The simple answer is,"Because they can." They feel some need to prove they're smarter than everyone else. Most people do that by getting a job and excelling at it.

[bobolito]

What really pisses me off is how these virus writers/hackers talk to the world with this attitude blaming people for not having antivirus or firewall protection as if innocent users were the ones causing the problems. They sound just like terrorists. Heck! if it weren't for these cybercriminals we wouldn't need firewalls and antivirus!

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by bobolito

What really pisses me off is how these virus writers/hackers talk to the world with this attitude blaming people for not having antivirus or firewall protection as if innocent users were the ones causing the problems. They sound just like terrorists. Heck! if it weren't for these cybercriminals we wouldn't need firewalls and antivirus!

"Proof-of-concept" viruses are just to prove it can be done. The problem is that other, not so skilled people take them, hack them and then use them for malicious purposes. I'm not trying to defend virus programmers but isn't it sort of a wake up call to the security people? They can learn from this virus and hopefully prevent more malicious viruses in the future. But yeah, it sucks. Now I'm not so sure if I want a Bluetooth phone.

[Bugwart]

I suppose follow up questions to Rancid's post are:

Why didn't Nokia see this exploitable hole in their Symbian/BT phones?

or:

Why doesn't Microsoft find the holes in Windows?

I am not defending anyone, but I think that these are good questions. Well designed systems should not have expoitable holes that hackers can find.

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by Bugwart

I suppose follow up questions to Rancid's post are:

Why didn't Nokia see this exploitable hole in their Symbian/BT phones?

or:

Why doesn't Microsoft find the holes in Windows?

I am not defending anyone, but I think that these are good questions. Well designed systems should not have expoitable holes that hackers can find.

You would think so, I think that probably no one who works for the companies thinks about those types of holes until the hackers find them and exploit them... which is why they should hire ex-hackers and not expose them to the way they do business, then say, "Here, see what you can do with this program." They may already do this but it doesn't seem to be working.

[orioles150]

there are tons of holes in microsoft ... I am not sure if you are talking solely about microsoft based cell phones I am sure we will see holes in them soon ... I mean just look at how many critical updates they have to release for the computer versions to fix holes. Their cell phone OS (Operating System) can't be perfect either. Just from a programming standpoint its almost impossible to create software with absolutely no holes in it.

[Bugwart]

Originally Posted by orioles150

there are tons of holes in microsoft ... I am not sure if you are talking solely about microsoft based cell phones I am sure we will see holes in them soon ... I mean just look at how many critical updates they have to release for the computer versions to fix holes. Their cell phone OS (Operating System) can't be perfect either. Just from a programming standpoint its almost impossible to create software with absolutely no holes in it.

MS Smartphone 2002 is far, FAR, FAR from perfect.
It is a lot more stable than Win Me, but that is not saying very much. Actually it seldom locks up, but when you close a program, it does not release all the memory. XBar (from XETRA) helps free up memory.

I am hoping that 2003 will be more like XP and less like 9x.