 |
The Verse - Volume 11
return
Tech
Tips - Cell Phone Virus - Real or Hoax?
Back in February 2002, an e-mail was circulating warning you not
to answer your cell phone if you saw "UNAVAILABLE" or
"ACE?" on the screen. The e-mail warned that if you answered,
a virus would infect your phone, rendering it unable to connect
to the cell phone network. Your cell phone would be worthless and
you'd have to buy a new phone. Fortunately for all of us, that turned
out to be a hoax. Now there is talk of another virus that can infect
cell phones.
Well, the bad news is that this one is for real. The first Cell
phone virus found in a cell phone in the U.S. is the Cabir virus,
also known as the Lasco.A virus. This virus can wirelessly infect
nearby phones that have the Bluetooth wireless data transfer feature.
This virus only drains cell phone batteries, but it paves the way
for future viruses which could be much more harmful.
"It's not the end of the world, but it does show us how more
dangerous viruses or malicious viruses could spread, especially
as the number of “smartphones” increases," said
Marie Clark, a representative for F-Secure, a wireless security
firm.
A hacker called Vallez, part of a group called 29A Labs, claimed
responsibility for Cabir. "Our goal is to create new, unique,
interesting viruses," the group says on its Web site.
Recipients would have to manually accept the infected file when
a message appears on the phone's screen. The phone would then display
text Caribe-VZ/29A, identifying the author's intended name for the
virus, the author's initials and the hacker group. Anti-virus companies,
which avoid using the author's proposed name for the virus, named
it Cabir.
So far, cell phone viruses have not been very successful. Only the
most recent cell phone operating systems allow viruses to effectively
spread. The “mobile-virus” threat will grow in the future
as virus-writers become more sophisticated and phones standardize
on technologies. That will make it easier for viruses to spread
across not just specific devices but the whole industry.
The danger from these viruses is still pretty small, since different
manufacturers and wireless carriers use their own operating system,
rather than a standard such as Microsoft Windows. Also, many handheld
device makers have recently released new mobile phones equipped
with anti-virus software.
Unlike computer viruses that spread quickly around the world through
e-mail and the Internet, Cabir spreads slowly because it travels
only over short distances when two Bluetooth devices get close enough
for it to transfer. It also requires a user to restart the phone
after it has been exposed for the virus to take hold.
|
|
