Conditions ripe for phone viruses to spread

Conditions ripe for phone viruses to spread

www.smh.com.au

Viruses and hacking on mobile phones are still rare but attacks are a looming danger as more people access the internet and download files with their handsets, experts say.

A survey released this week at the industry's Mobile World Congress showed that only 2.1 per cent of users had been hit by a virus themselves and only 11.6 per cent knew someone who had been affected by one.

The poll by IT security specialist McAfee, based on 2,000 people in Britain, the United States and Japan, showed that 86.3 per cent had had no experience of mobile phone viruses.

(visit the link for the full news article)

As if computer viruses, trojans and various other malware aren't enough, the cellphone as the portable little do it all gadget is probably just as vulnerable, and there are already some earlier examples of viruses out there. So what's next, having phone firewalls, hide behind a personal phone router, and start the never ending daily "updates" to fix, patch and "improve" the service? Just yet another thing to nickel and dime the local public again. Sometimes I think they create the market for such vulnarbilities, but then again, welcome to the tech age.

www.smh.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by kr0n1ck405


WOW, thats a vulnerability that i was unaware of, though so easy to think of. Damn! Yes welcome to the Tech Age as you say.....so i guess we should be afraid....be very afraid......

when you think about it all cel phones run on really basic operating systems, we upload wallpapers, small aps and ringtones all the time. It is surely just a matter of time till someone find weaknesses in the operating systems and file types to exploit us further. Just what i need to update software for firewalls and antivirus software for my phone. Next it will be the ipod and get viruses on your internet fridge. Damn kids need to get laid, instead of making virus's. But why not, we bank with them now, surf the web, use the famed facebook, what better source to hack our information now a days, now i am worried.

Ha, when I first read the headline, I thought of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, with the civilization that is killed by a virus spread through unsanitized telephones after they got rid of all the supposedly useless people on the planet!

Anyway, I would sure hate to get one of these on my phone!