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Wireless Networking Security Worms Hardware

Anti-Virus Protection For Your Cell Phone 102

Posted by Zonk from the little-wireless-virii dept.
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. "
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Anti-Virus Protection For Your Cell Phone More

Anti-Virus Protection For Your Cell Phone

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  • Just one question: (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @05:59PM (#13466897)
    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: (Score:4, Funny)

      by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:11PM (#13466953)
      > 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 (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:28PM (#13467033)

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

      • Upside down.

        In a mirror.

        After warming up.

        Isn't progress great?

        I love my phone. It only has one "needless addon", the camera.

        Sure the quality of the camera isn't great, but what makes it useful is that I suddenly have the ability to take pictures everywhere.

      • Improving the picture quality of a television is logical for a television. The point was that phones are adding so many non-phone features that the features are poor quality crap, instead of focusing on and improving the features of a phone. Color is an obvious television feature.

    • Re:Just one question: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And this is exactly why I still have my Nokia 5150. It makes calls. Has caller-ID. Has a phone-book. Has a couple tiny, worthless games.

      No camera.
      No MP3 player.
      No polyphonic ringtones.
      No walkie-talkie functionality.
      No multiplayer games.
      No E-Mail.
      No real-time AIM chat.
      No bluetooth.
      No IR connectivity.

      NO VIRUSES.

      It makes phone calls. That's it.

      Sure, I get funny looks when it shifts the wrong way in my pocket, but what do you expect from a phone that was free in 2000?
      • 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
        • How many of you people have bought the latest, greatest camera phone, sent a few pictures of your dick to your girlfriend in the vain hope that you would impress her with your "high-techness", and then never used that feature again?

          This is Slashdot, so... very few of us? A phone and a girlfriend? That's just unrealistic!

          I don't even have a phone, so the closest I can get is having a girlfriend. I wonder if the real reason she's been bugging me to get a phone is so I can take pictures of my dick and send
    • I hate this kind of comment. I'm the owner of a smartphone/PDA doohickie, and I use it for many things other than making calls, on daily basis. I'm moving back to uni soon, and I've got a big list of all the things I need to do, outlook synced meetings and class times, emails saved and documents all ready to be used on the 1 piece of electronica I carry with me always. I also have pictures of friends, thousands of messages, annoying games and a few MP3s, just in case. I've a putty client which I can use
      • Seems to me you're the smug one, dude.
        • I kinda agree with you Screwmaster... but if people want small computers rather than just a phone then why wont you give it up and admit that?

          I have a XDAII phone... prolly one of the most powerful 'phones' on the market..

          People say to me 'hey your phone is huge' But I look at it from another perspective... A mobile phone does one main thing -- make calls (one they play a few games of Bejeweled 2 their minds change)

          My PDA does one main thing -- works as a generic pda... The plus side to this and many oth
    • 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
    • My favorite these days... Bell mobility [www.bell.ca] has started offering caller ring tunes. Even worse, it's now a free service on some plans.

      (one of the many reasons I love my SE T616. The default ring sound is called "Old Phone")
  • There aren't that many phone viruses out there, are there? How perfectly useless!
    • 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...

  • Too many features. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by failure-man ( 870605 ) <failureman&gmail,com> on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:00PM (#13466900)
    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.
    • 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.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:17PM (#13466981)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • 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?

      • , but there are lots of people out there that want and use these features.

        Hell yeah. I'm lying in bed right, chilling on my day off, surfing the net & sending the odd email over a wifi pda/cell. It's the dogs nuts, full html browser, ssh, vnc, email, streaming media, mp3 player. I could go on for ages about the shit it could do. My laptop is now gathering dust.

        The advantange of having all this in a phone is that I have all these capabilities 24/7 whereever I am. Walking home from the pub, just whip

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

      If I want a calculator and a PSP I'll carry a calculator and a PSP.

      ...

      If my calculator is smart enough to get hit with worms it's really smarter than it needs to be. I want my calculator to be able to do basic op

    • 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
      • 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.
        • And, something else to add:

          I don't know about Palm OS 5, which is probably more common on Palm OS smartphones (Treo 600 and 650 are the main (and, in the case of the 600, the first) "OMGIHAVETOHAVEONE!!!1111oneoneone!" Palm OS smartphones, and they run Palm OS 5), but a program could be written to crash Palm OS 4 to the point that a hard reset (the Palm OS equivalent of a reformat, except it's done by pushing three buttons, and is over in 5 seconds) would be necessary.
    • 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.
    • If it "just works" like MS claims Windows does, then it's perfectly normal that it gets viruses.
    • 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.
    • 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
    • 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
      • 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? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Valiss ( 463641 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:01PM (#13466908) Homepage
    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?
    • 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.
      • 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?

        • 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... (Score:4, Funny)

    by doxology ( 636469 ) <[ude.tim] [ta] [dyzzoc]> on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:02PM (#13466909) Homepage
    We had to walk 15 miles in the snow to get a virus.
  • 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. :)

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

      Except some of the more modern devices are designed to broadcast even when you "turn them off".
    • 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?
    • 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 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by scenestar ( 828656 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:04PM (#13466920) Homepage Journal
    its time top switch to Linux [linuxmobilephones.com]

  • No Worries ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by b3x ( 586838 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:06PM (#13466930) Journal
    I soak my in a powerful anticeptic every night while it is charging!

  • I though these things went after market share (Score:5, Interesting)

    by varmittang ( 849469 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:07PM (#13466936)
    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)

  • Other reasons for mobile security (Score:4, Informative)

    by itr2401 ( 873985 ) on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:10PM (#13466949)
    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
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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

      Then they are a bunch of scam artists. None of there platforms have any viruses. The Pocket PC one has a 'proof of concept' one that asks permissing before it 'spreads'. It's a traditional virus, not a worm, so it would need to be executed via a trojan for example. I'd q

  • Nightmare Scenario #14 (Score:5, Funny)

    by lateralus_1024 ( 583730 ) <mattbaha@gmEULERail.com minus math_god> on Friday September 02, 2005 @06:26PM (#13467023)
    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? (Score:2, Funny)

    by 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
    • 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. :)
      • ..hmm.. good question
        Among other 'proofs' I found this: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cc/viruses.htm [keele.ac.uk]

        ...All PCs should have this virus protection software. It used to be called F-Prot but has recently become known as F-Secure. It is essential that you keep your version up to date...
        • *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...
  • I would prefer virus protection over anti-virus protection...
  • Guess what,Symantec [symantec.com] has been offering this for a while now, and there are others, even some free ones. Just Google [google.com] for them and you'll see what i'm talking about.

  • no fucking way (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yagu ( 721525 ) * <{yayagu} {at} {gmail.com}> on Friday September 02, 2005 @08:27PM (#13467598) Journal

    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.

    • 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.

      You'd better get used to walking then. Cars will be getting virii within 5 years; the systems to enable this are already coming to market. Built in BT or USB keys, pick your infection mechanism.

      As devices get more capable, there will always be someone wanting to upset the apple cart. Get used to it or become a Mormon...your choice. Would have said the same about email five year

  • 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

    • One of the possibilities would be to make a dialer, as for the modems. For example, making your phone call from 2am to 6am, while it is charging...
  • Now that bluetooth is finally taking off, the best way to kill it is spreading viruses over it. What amazes me is that there is no protection built into the devices. Security is always afterthought unfortunately.
  • Cell phone virus scanners have been around for a while, as often seen on Engadget when they cover a new virus. Here's a screenshot from February: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000310032479/ [engadget.com]

    It would be worthy of advertising for a cell phone company to include virus scanning software like this on their phones from the start. Though people have grown used to computers being unreliable, cell phones are becoming more and more the same, and people are soon going to stop putting up with it. A friend has repl

  • F-secure is doing this for years ... The wayback machine [archive.org] for f-secure starting from 2002...
  • The two biggest most widespread and dangerous viruses have already found their way into 99% of the phones created within the last 3 years. Experts are calling these viruses 'Microsoft' and 'Google'.

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