First Destructive Mobile Phone Virus In The Wild 265
gbjbaanb writes "eek! the BBC is reporting the first mobile phone virus that causes damage is out and about. The virus only works with the Symbian Series 60's OS (no, not the Smartphone) and spreads through an adapted copy of the legitimate Mosquitos game.
Once installed, a hidden program sends SMS texts to premium rate numbers.
That's not so bad, no doubt the premium rate numbers will be switched off soon but the worst is yet to come - "typically we see them in the wild then copycat ones come along soon after," said Sal Viveros, director of wireless security at McAfee."
Great.... (Score:3, Interesting)
so who do i sue ? (Score:1, Interesting)
do i sue the phone manufacturer or my provider for flaws in their product that cause me financial loss ?
perhaps after getting bitchslapped in courts is the only way to teach manufacturers that quality counts and YOU WILL be held responsible if you products are faulty
Not quite as I'd have thought. (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, worm writers will still catch on quickly anyway, I'll bet.
Re:Not quite as I'd have thought. (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, if I were charged for SMS' without my consent I would want to recoup those costs myself as well.
Not a virus (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm also not sure it deserves to to be called destructive either. It doesn't destruct anything or in any way modify any other services on your phone - it simply sends SMS messages. It would be better classed as "expensive"
Re:bandwith is not necessary to be annoying (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Great.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Once they make a phone that fixes problems like these and works with the service in a way that I can make and receive good quality calls, THEN I'll be interested in what they have to say about other uses of mobile phones.
Re:That is why... (Score:2, Interesting)
A phone needs to be just everything it can possibly be.
Re:Not quite as I'd have thought. (Score:2, Interesting)
The ONLY difference here is that it uses a premium, possible-pay-per-use medium to make the calls and is thus, afaic, not too different from those porno over-seas 900 dialers that were a big deal last year. This is not clever and it is probably illegal under computer abuse acts (sure would be in the US), at least if the SMS "feature" was really a secret as the author was quoted.
Re:bah... (Score:2, Interesting)
I mean, you've got to admit, cell phones that do many things a computer does and require a complex OS aren't exactly new, and they've always been "networked" (by definition), but somehow it's only now that this market could provide a bail-out route from the Windows platform for A/V companies that these viruses come out. Strange isn't it?
Re:Nope - "virus" is a broken anti piracy system (Score:3, Interesting)
Although the Mosquitos saga turns out to be an urban myth, the recent discovery of the first malware capable of infecting smartphones shatters the comforting belief the mobile phones are safe from viral infection. The threat is very low at present but shouldn't be completely discounted. ®
So is it real or urban myth ? Also, as repeatedly mentioned, you must install an run "Warez" version of this game for it to work. Let the buyer beware !
Re:so who do i sue ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cell Phone viruses (Score:3, Interesting)
Client file system protection makes (a) harder, but it doesn't prevent it... I suspect it's impossible in principle to prevent (a) short of running everything in a sandbox that's destroyed when you quit using it. The biggest advantage that open source systems have is that they make (c) harder... you don't have to depend on the vendor recognising and fixing security holes and design flaws... or refusing to fix them for tactical reasons.
This is just another reason for me to carry a cheap dumb phone and a separate PDA that's only in communication with the rest of the universe while I'm actively using it for that purpose. That makes requirements (b) and (c) dependent on my doing something stupid.
Remember the Pakistani Brain? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is there any question who to sue? Any use of malware for copy protection is unjustified and clearly in violation of the law in most places. This kind of crap has been tried before and it never benefits anyone.
Re:Nope - "virus" is a broken anti piracy system (Score:3, Interesting)
it only gets distributed by people..
it's a sms sender attached to a warez release - nothing more nothing less.
Fingers pointing - wrong direction (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow! Where'd'ya find that? (Score:3, Interesting)
They are all asking their R&D departments to come up with features that give the most bang for the $'s spent. While there are serious cost limitations on how the communications portion of the system can be improved, extra games are simply added software and attract customers attention.
Cameras can be explained in a similar (but more complicated) way. Camera hardware is an added expense, BUT the phone service providers can charge a premium for data (picture) transfers on top of the voice connection.
Improvements in the telephone portion of the system are usually subtle and go unnoticed by the general public. If there were some source of information comparing a cell phones basic features (Sound Quality, Battery Life, Larger possible service area....) and this was EASILY available to the public, you may start seeing the phone manufacturers start giving us features we really care about.
Personally, I could give two hoots about pictures and mp3's coming through my phone. I would be quite satisfied with good voice service and SMS. Maybe if more people expressed this idea, there would be a reaction in the market.
Re:Not quite as I'd have thought. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:bandwith is not necessary to be annoying (Score:3, Interesting)
Some carriers make it hard to load apps (Score:2, Interesting)
We're frequently lambasted on public forums and through nastygrams from folks (mostly developer types) who keep on insisting that these restrictions are unconscionable, that information wants to be free and that they bought the phone and they should be able to do whatever they want to it.
You can imagine the reception I get whenever I explain that the restrictions are there, in great part, to protect customers from unwittingly loading malware on their phones that would cause them to get ridiculously huge phone bills.
Mild pleasure to be taken from vindication, I guess.