Anti-Virus Protection For Your Cell Phone

spect3r writes "BBC Tech reports that F-Secure, a Finnish security firm has created a software program to combat the increasing number of viruses that manage their way into cell phones. Although not as robust as your mainstream virus scanners for the PC, the software promises to protect bluetooth enabled handsets (the most vulnerable type) from most of the current types of virus software, such as Cabir or Commwarrior. F-Secure said that it's boxed anti-virus software for mobiles will be in the shops and available online from 5 September." From the article: "Mobile viruses such as Cabir and Commwarrior can spread via the Bluetooth short range radio system found on many smart phones. Commwarrior can also spread via multimedia messaging systems. Most of the mobile phone viruses target handsets that use the Symbian operating system. Infection can be avoided by turning off Bluetooth on smart phones. "

Just one question:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Is there anything wrong with a cell phone that's just a phone? All I want to do is make calls.

Re:Just one question:

[Tackhead (54550)]

> Is there anything wrong with a cell phone that's just a phone? All I want to do is make calls.

We're in the business of selling you stuff you don't need. If we actually sold you what you wanted, you'd have stopped buying stuff from us in 1990, and we... umm... well, that wouldn't be good for us, you see?

If you don't like your phone because the UI was designed by a crazy frog hopped up on ecstasy and crystal meth, give it back to us, along with a $200 termination fee. We'll send you our latest phone. (We fired the crazy frog earlier this year and replaced him with a three-toed sloth, who we doped up on valium. Better buy your new phone now, because we had a guy with five cocks in our UI focus group this quarter, and he wants to be sure that when the phone's in his pocket, his pants fit like a glove!)

MOD LUDDITE UP +++7!!!! Insightful

[by Anonymous Coward]

black and white TV is fine, why would anyone need color ? i just want to watch moving pictures

The Dark Side

[iamlucky13 (795185)]

I've always planned to, when it becomes cheaper to get a mobile phone than maintain my "Hidden Fees Plus" account with Qwest, get a barebones cellular phone to replace the house phone. That time hasn't quite come, but I just moved and everyone who calls (ie, my parents) complains that I never answer the phone (sitting by the phone waiting for a call hardly qualifies as life), so I guess I might as well go for it.

I've found, however, that because of the constant special deals for buying a phone and rate p

Re:Just one question:

[MightyMartian (840721)]

I'd like a phone than atomized self-important pricks that have theirs going off in restaurants and movie theaters.

Re:Just one question:

[moo083 (716213)]

I think having a phone with all the neat features on it is really cool, but I don't see this as a troll post.

I would probably rate your post as flamebait. I don't think this post has anything wrong with it. It is relevant, has an opinion, and is written out in proper English.

I think a phone that is just a phone is a very important thing to be able to buy and be something most people know about, however it isn't advertised by any phone service, nor do most people know about them. Just us folks here on /.

Re:Just one question:

[EvilNTUser (573674)]

"I don't think this post has anything wrong with it. It is relevant, has an opinion, and is written out in proper English."

It is not relevant. Would you tell Windows-users to switch to MS-DOS if a vulnerability is discovered in the IP-stack?

"Another thing: Don't you think its kind of crazy that a simple device such as a phone is getting a virus?"

It is not a "phone". It is a mobile computing device. Don't you think it's kind of crazy that a simple device such as a calculator is getting a virus?

"I

Re:Just one question:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Just FYI I'm an engineer who's been developing real-time industrial applications for twenty years. Probably I know more about wireless technology than you do and hardly qualify as a Luddite, but in any event I look at the cell phone market as being driven largely by creeping featuritis, much like Microsoft Office. Features and functions that have little to do with what the majority of users (obviously, such a suave, sophisticated, downright impolite citizen such as yourself wouldn't quality) really need or want, but can be used to convince the more sheeplike (or small-penised) among them to plunk down real money.

I like gadgets as much as the next American, but when I do buy something along those lines I simply like to make sure it's worth what I'm paying. Gratuitiously buying high-tech toys simply makes landfills bigger and shrinks your wallet, and I got news for you, technology-boy ... there are millions of sophisticated cell phones out there being used by people that haven't the slightest idea how to do anything more with them than press Send.

Re:Just one question:

[EvilNTUser (573674)]

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the tone of my post. It was supposed to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. Something Awful has been down for a few days...

Even so, I stand by my argument. Your post was without value, for the following reasons:

1) It is repeated in every single discussion about cell phones, and nothing new ever comes out of it.
2) You didn't defend your position at all, and the remark by itself is meaningless, as simple cell phones are available.
3) This is not a discussion forum for peopl

Re:Just one question:

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

While I don't see a problem with adding features to mobile 'phones, I do feel that the wrong features are being added at the expense of genuinely useful ones. For example, my telephone has 1.5MB of flash memory in it. This can be used to store images and midi ring tones (and any arbitrary files I drop in it, although these aren't accessed by the 'phone's software). The SMS storage, however, is hard limited at 10KB. Even though I don't use the camera, and don't put idiotic ring-tones on it, I still can't

Re:Just one question:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Yeah ... I had the same model until the battery pack finally died and I found out that a new one cost more than a new phone. Now I have a Panasonic model that's about three years old and with the same problem, so I guess I'll have to replace it even though it, too, has all the advantages that you mentioned in your post.

Funny, people will keep their landline phones for years until they finally stop working, but they're easily convinced to "upgrade" their cell phone every six months just to have a new toy

Re:Just one question:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Seems to me you're the smug one, dude.

Too many features.

[failure-man (870605)]

If my phone is smart enough to get hit with worms it's really smarter than it needs to be. I want my phone to be able to make phone calls and basically nothing else. It should "just work," be durable, be cheap, and should not require me to pay for antivirus software to keep it functional.
 
If I want a PDA and an iPod I'll carry a PDA and an iPod.

Re:Too many features.

[robertjw (728654)]

I agree, especially since I went to my cell being my only phone. Last thing I need is to be unable to communicate with anyone because my fancy phone contracted a virus. As long as there are vulnerabilities, I would rather have multiple devices.

Re:Too many features.

[DrEldarion (114072)]

So... don't get a feature-filled phone? Last time I checked, there were plenty of base-model phones out there that only send and receive calls, and maybe have a calculator as well.

You may not want a camera, bluetooth, web browsing, MP3 ringtones, etc, but there are lots of people out there that want and use these features.

Re:Too many features.

[MightyMartian (840721)]

You may not want a camera, bluetooth, web browsing, MP3 ringtones, etc, but there are lots of people out there that want and use these features.

Yeah, how else is a voyeur going to get upskirt shots on to his perv web site in a hurry?

Putting your requirements on other people

[hellfire (86129)]

Damnit why do /.ers continue to think their requirements match everyone elses? This kind of thinking shows that you think what's good enough for you is good enough for everyone else. That's bullshit.

I personally want an all in one PDA that has MP3s and a phone. Why? I do not want to be carrying around three devices all the time. I'm a man so I don't carry a pocket book, and I don't want to be carrying around a briefcase or anything like that. I want one device on my hip that does it all.

The iPod is th

Re:Putting your requirements on other people

[bhtooefr (649901)]

Symbian's actually not that vulnerable, it's just a bigger target than Palm OS when it comes to smartphones... Bluetooth, OTOH...

These viruses require active participation to get the thing going. Therefore, saying NO to an unsolicited BT DL will fix it.

Re:Too many features.

[Tim C (15259)]

If I want a PDA and an iPod I'll carry a PDA and an iPod.

And a phone and a camera and a calculator and...

Me, I like having a single device do everything for me, kind of like I have a single, multi-purpose PC rather than a compilation machine, a word processor, an accountancy machine, a console per game, etc.

ENOUGH ALREADY!

[lidocaineus (661282)]

What a frickin' karma whore. ANYTIME there is a post about a phone, someone will pipe up and say, "But all **I** want is a phone that does one thing and does it right!"

WE GET IT ALREADY. FROM NOW ON, JUST SAY, "Standard /. feature-creep phone post." We'll understand what you mean.

No, too many offered services

[Animats (122034)]

The real trouble here seems to be that the cell phone people now have the Microsoft Disease - systems that ship with a huge range of little-used but externally accessable services turned on. The number of people with PCs attacked via Universal Plug and Play or Windows Messenger service is bigger than the number of people who actually use those services for anything. Microsoft also likes to put auto-launch into everything, from CD drivers to IE to Outlook to Word to Excel, thus providing a virus-friendly e

Re:Too many features.

[hackstraw (262471)]

I want my phone to be able to make phone calls and basically nothing else.

When I was a child in the '70s, we had those kinds of phones.

You would pick up the phone, listen for the dialtone, dial the number, the other person's phone would ring. If they were home, the two of you could talk until one or both of you hung up the phone.

Now, it is common to use two phones in order to complete a conversation. Phrases like:

"Can you call me back on a land line?" (or vice versa).

"Can you hear me now?"

"Our connection

Re:Too many features.

[DJCF (805487)]

Yes, I remember those. You couldn't...

• Use them from nearby a river which has overflown its banks in order to call in an ambulance when your friend is washed away by the force of the flood
• Use it from the middle of a playground where you and your mates have just been attacked by yobs
• Use them to arrange a meeting in a place you've never been too before or with a person you've never met or both
• Take pictures with it.
• Read books on it

(All of those I have had to do in the past month).

It's not hard, mate. If

My phone?

[Valiss (463641)]

I'm not sure what OS my phone runs. Is there a list of phone make/models that are effected by these worms? Or is it just any phone that has bluetooth on it? How could one even tell if there was a virus on the phone?

Re:My phone?

[slavemowgli (585321)]

Not all phones have Bluetooth and other such gimmicks. If you want to find some which don't, just look at what models you can get for a relatively cheap price even if you don't enter a contract - those that still only cost 50 bucks are the ones that don't have all the bells and whistles.

Re:My phone?

[Valiss (463641)]

Well, I know mine has bluetooth, but it's 'off' by default. I guess I'm just not sure how a virus would get on my phone to begin with. Like a PC, do you have to actively install it (i.e. detach a view a 'photo') or is it passive and self-propagating?

Re:My phone?

[slavemowgli (585321)]

TFA says:

"None of them have been truly autonomous like worms on PCs," [Whitehouse] said. "They always require a certain degree of user interaction."

So it seems like you can't catch them by simply being near others with infected phones when you have Bluetooth enabled; you still have to do something. But it's not clear to me what amount of user interaction is required - i.e., whether it's enough to accidentally select the default "yes" answer in a dialog or something similar, or whether you have to go t

Why, In my day...

[doxology (636469)]

We had to walk 15 miles in the snow to get a virus.

Re:Why, In my day...

[robertjw (728654)]

Well, in my day, we had to walk uphill in the snow just to use the phone.

Of course we also had to live in a lake [davidpbrown.co.uk].

Bluetooth should be off anyway

[Limburgher (523006)]

unless you're using it. Same logic that applies to services and TCP/IP ports applies to all communications devices.

Unless, of course, you're going "toothing". In which cas, you might catch altogether another kind of virus. :)

Re:Bluetooth should be off anyway

[failure-man (870605)]

Except that nobody actually goes toothing. It's an urban ledgend that was probably created to see if it would become reality if you got enough people to believe it.

Re:Bluetooth should be off anyway

[jacksonj04 (800021)]

Trouble is, I use Bluetooth on a couple of devices as a base state of being ie I walk around with it turned on. Why? Because then my PDA and phone can keep in sync with various PCs without me needing to muck around with cables or even turning bluetooth on explicitly. I just walk past the general area.

Is there any way of having selective bluetooth, so it waits for a trusted device (say a PC broadcasting a ping every 5 secs) before fully turning on bluetooth?

Re:Bluetooth should be off anyway

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

Why? A BT device will only communicate with devices it's paired with. I leave mine turned on so that when I'm using my computer SMS messages will pop up on my screen, rather than on my 'phone, and so I can get an on-screen alert when someone calls me, and not have to find my 'phone to send them to voicemail if I'm busy. Oh yes, and it auto-syncs when it enters range.

Well, I guess

[scenestar (828656)]

its time top switch to Linux [linuxmobilephones.com]

No Worries ...

[b3x (586838)]

I soak my in a powerful anticeptic every night while it is charging!

I though these things went after market share

[varmittang (849469)]

Not after nitch OSs and stuff. Shouldn't the iPod then have the most viruses. =) I mean really, there has to be a million or so iPods connected to PCs out there running Windows, that would be the potable market that you would want to infect. Destroying all the digital music out there and all. =) But, I guess market share doesn't mean much.

(I know, there is no real way for one iPod to infect the next, I'm doing a funny rant on market share is why windows is attacted)

Re:I though these things went after market share

[failure-man (870605)]

(I know, there is no real way for one iPod to infect the next, I'm doing a funny rant on market share is why windows is attacted)

Ahem . . . [thinkgeek.com]

Market share is what you make it.

[amcdiarmid (856796)]

Making an investment to get 100% of a small, but growing, market is a potential goldmine. Fighting to get 2% of a bit market with the same investment is not.

F-Secure allready has stuff for windows, but that market is really held by Symanted/Norton, McAffe, Trend; CA. Everyone else is fighting over something like 10% of the market. (Trend claimes something like 30% of the server and gateway market, Symantec has something like 50% of the desktop market (and a big server presence), and McAffe has a fairly bi

Other reasons for mobile security

[itr2401 (873985)]

There are other reasons for mobile security out there - especially in the corporate arena:
* Centralized Management and Provisioning
* Easy to Use
* Anti-Spam for SMS Text Messages (this is an emerging problem)
* Flexible Virus Scanning
* Rapid Virus Pattern Updates

Trend Micro has a solution for this already(Trend Micro Mobile Security), and supports the following Mobile Devices:
* Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003/2003SE for Smartphone
* Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003/2003SE for Pocket PC Phone Edition
* Symbian(TM) OS v7.0 with UIQ 2.0/2.1 User Interface
* Symbian OS v7.0s with Series 60 Platform User Interface

Re:Other reasons for mobile security

[pfefferle6 (846670)]

We looked at the Trend beta for Windows Mobile in my office. They had to release an update just so you could install it. They then had to release a second update so that you could uninstall it when it when it completely screwed up your handset.

Re:Other reasons for mobile security

[S3D (745318)]

F-Secure, a Finnish security firm has created a software program to combat the increasing number of viruses that manage their way into cell phones.

Trend Micro has a solution for this already(Trend Micro Mobile Security), and supports the following Mobile Devices:

I have a feelnig that /. turning into advertisng forum for av manufacturers.

Nightmare Scenario #14

[lateralus_1024 (583730)]

Me:Hey what the hell is this $5.99 NAV fee in this months bill?

TMobile guy(via Mumbai): Good day sir, this is Trevor, please hold for a minute while I look up your account. By the way, how is the surf in Sunny San Diego California?

Me:(shooting up heroin to ease tension)

TMobile: That charge is for your monthly Norton Antivirus protection service. It protects you from malicious network activity.

Me:I would like to unsubscribe.

TMobile: Sir, you do understand that by removing the NAV protection, you risk data loss, loss of connection quality in case of emergency, and penal infection?

Me:I want it removed, and I want you to unsubscribe me from the NAV protection.

TMobile: Very well my homie. While I process your request, I will read you some T-Mobile special promotions regarding our new Universal Power Supply service for your mobile phone? Purchase now and receive any three Ashlee Simpson ring to...

Me:(hang up abruptly and curls into fetal position).

finnish?

[b100dian (771163)]

...F-Secure, a Finnish security firm ...

Slahsdot - news for newbies..

Come on, it's only a security firm? What's this, Fashion TV News?!?!

It's the security firm which makes F-Prot since Granny was a kid.. du-uh

Re:finnish?

[slavemowgli (585321)]

On a side note... are they actually Finnish? I was always under the impression that they're an Icelandic company (http://www.frisk.is/ [frisk.is] is still up and still seems to talk about F-Prot, but I don't speak Icelandic...)

Or am I wrong? I'm genuinely confused now; I'm not even sure anymore whether F-Prot and F-Secure have much to do with each other, although the "F-" would certainly seem to suggest so.

Any enlightening replies will be greatly appreciated. :)

Re:finnish?

[slavemowgli (585321)]

*nods* On the other hand, I just visited http://www.f-prot.com/ [f-prot.com] and http://www.f-secure.com/ [f-secure.com] and they mention that the companies were founded in 1993 and 1988, respectively - so that would suggest that they're not the same. But then, the F-Secure website *does* mention F-Prot, talking about "F-Secure Anti-Virus for DOS (F-Prot)". Could it be that they were different companies initially that merged at a later point? I seem to recall that F-Secure was formerly Datafellows, too...

Anti-Virus protection?

[MavEtJu (241979)]

I would prefer virus protection over anti-virus protection...

no fucking way

[yagu (721525)]

The day I have to start paying for anti-virus software to protect my fucking phone is the day I stop using cell phones... PERIOD.

Viruses?

[a_greer2005 (863926)]

Do the 2 big AV companies have NOTHING better to do than to churn out viruses for EVERYTHING with an IP number??

Honestly, what would a hacker want with a phone, oyu cant spam, spim, or send junk texts nearly as rapidly as an own3d windows XP Pre-sp1 box (and there are still TONS floating arround)

Who else would want to make a virus for phones, phones are too weak to do anything and the script kiddies dont have the resorces to learn/code/hack in any of the moble OSes other than maybe Windows Moble/Smartphon

What's new ?

[freaker_TuC (7632)]

F-secure is doing this for years ... The wayback machine [archive.org] for f-secure starting from 2002...

Re:How many are there?

[FyRE666 (263011)]

It is useless - more to the point, the only thing you need to do to avoid any chance of downloading a virus via bluetooth is to... disable bluetooth when you're not using it! This also extends battery life. In fact, I'd image just about any phone would have BT disabled by default to help conserve power, and any that didn't would certainly have it set to not advertise the phones presence.

Sounds to me like a company trying to scam the technically ignorant average phone user...