[LINK] First mobile phone virus discovered

[Rick Welykochy]

<http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9860240%255E2,00.html>

   From correspondents in Paris
   June 16, 2004

   THE first ever computer virus that can infect mobile phones has
   been discovered, anti-virus software developers said today, adding
   that up until now it has had no harmful effect.

   The French unit of the Russian security software developer
   Kaspersky Labs said that that virus - called Cabir - appears to
   have been developed by an international group specialising in
   creating viruses which try to show "that no technology is reliable
   and safe from their attacks".

   Cabir infects the Symbian operating system that is used in several
   makes of mobiles, notably the Nokia brand, and propagates through
   the new bluetooth wireless technology that is in several new mobile
   phones.

   If the virus succeeds in penetrating the phone, it writes the
   inscription 'Caribe' on the screen and is then activated every
   time that the phone is turned on.

   It is able to scan for phones that are also using the Bluetooth
   technology and is able to send a copy of itself to the first handset
   that it finds.

   According to the anti-virus software developer F-Secure, the discovery
   of Cabir is proof that the technologies are now available to create
   viruses for mobile phones and that they are now known to the writers
   of computer viruses.

   Anti-virus experts have been warning for months that mobile phone
   viruses are set to multipy, given the increasingly diverse uses of
   mobile phones.

   Agence France-Presse

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Hrmm ... sounds more like a worm to me.


cheers
rickw



-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

For years, Microsoft has had a policy of announcing products that don't
exist yet, to cause customers to stop buying a competitor's product.
That's Vapourware.  Is it really any shock that they would want to prevent
customers from using more robust OSs and tools, by offering Vapoursecurity?
      -- David Maxwell on Full Disclosure