| Virus Warnings / Patches | Risk | Virus Name | Date Discoverd |
|
|
In April, Security software firm SimWorks announced that the number of known trojan viruses found doubled. All of the viruses targeted Symbian-based phones, widely licensed by mobile phone giant Nokia.
 The spate of trojan viruses, which hide themselves inside other applications-especially games, raised some cautionary, but not overwhelming, concern. None of them was found "in the wild."
This is likely because cell phone malware is still in a sort of "test phase," as most of it is produced by "proof-of-concept" entities who create the software and send it to security firms for testing. These are preparatory measures, but ne'er-do-wells keep close tabs and work on their own versions.
Though 20 million smart phones (phones that have computer operating systems with Internet and wireless capabilities among others) were sold last year, proliferation hasn't saturated the general population enough for this to become widespread. But it is growing and security experts expect it to continue exponentially.
Gartner IT Security predicts three conditions that must occur before the nuisance of mobile malware begins to be a real problem. (Read the Search Security article here.)
• Penetration of smart phones and PDAs with always-on wireless must exceed 30% of consumers and organizations. Right now Gartner projects that figure to reach 10% by the end of this year.
• Mobile platforms' operating systems and application languages must consolidate to no more than three choices splitting 90% of the market, with one platform getting nearly half of market share.
• Mobile device users must be accustomed to commonly sending and receiving locally executable software.
"When all these factors come together, an attack could be more realistic," Gartner Vice President John Pescatore said. "In 2007 we'll begin to see incidents that cause damage."
The first known mobile worm was developed by proof-of-concept firm, Cabir, out of Eastern Europe. Since its inception it has mutated several times from the original, from Cabir.A through Cabir.I.
All strains of Cabir run on Symbian Series 60 platform, overwhelmingly used on Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, and Sony Ericsson smart phones. The Cabir worms are transmitted through an infected application, an .SIS
(Symbian installation system) application-installation file. It is spread through file sharing, like two friends connecting wirelessly to download games from one another.
The craftiness of the application, though, is the scarier part. Cabir can replicate and transmit itself via Bluetooth by automatically trying to connect to other smart phones within a 10m radius. Phones targeted display a message asking the user if he/she wants to accept an outside message via Bluetooth. Once infected, the screen displays variations of the text "Caribe," and begins to bog down the phone by constantly looking for other phones to connect to.
 It spreads, literally, like an airborne virus, infecting phones with little protection or gullible owners. It has spread to 21 countries so far.
"We recently reported [Cabir's] arrival in Australia and in other countries like China, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates," Aaron Davidson, CEO of SimWorks International.
Lasco.A, which is based on Cabir, is the latest mutation. The first to use two methods of replication, Lasco.A can create its own .SIS installer file that it sends to other phones on its own, or it can trojan itself into other .SIS applications to be transmitted through file sharing.
The implications of infected phones are sweeping and unnerving. The minimum nuisance would be a spam annoyance that could slow down or stall everything completely. Theoretically though, these digital diseases could worm their way into credit lines, information databases, accounting records, even your car.
Finnish security firm F-Secure, however, doesn't believe that cars with Bluetooth wireless capabilities can be infected. The Helsinki-based company ran tests on a Toyota Prius and investigated the theory.
Read the Rest of the Article.
About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in Communication. After a recent stint in Japan, he has returned to his home in Lexington, KY. |
|
By Jason L. Miller
, Inc. 2549 Richmond Rd. Lexington KY, 40509
