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[Afro Thunder]

From Mobile Monday: http://www.mobilemonday.net/mm/story.php?story_id=4050
It´s has begun. The brazilian laws are too slow (I live in Brazil). The guy shows your face, your name and nothing will happen to him.

 

[ToxicAdam]

This makes me sad for technology.

As we become more inter-connected, any kind of new technology/device is going to need layers and layers of encryption and security ... making things slower and more expensive.

 

[marsomega]

“I’m not trying to spread the worms and I don’t want them to spread.”

Uh huh...

“The release of Lasco’s source code will take the virus scene in the cellular world to a totally new level. Maybe the year 2005 will be remembered as the year of mobile malware.”

Right....


He's trying to be modest with the first comment but it's really bullshit. He wants to be famous for causing the "year of mobile malware". Hopefully, his interview of his work will be from a prison cell.

 

[Willco]

How does a virus infect mobile phones? Text messages?

 

[Phoenix]

How does a virus infect mobile phones? Text messages?

Turn off bluetooth and don't download bootleg content and you're generally safe. Same rules apply as using PCs, though much of this has to do with Nokia's own incompetence.

A big problem with dealing with this situation on phones is that phones have no inherent mechanism to receive automatic firmware updates. This is a problem at the core of cellphones. Put 30 of the same model of phone in a room and they probably all have a different firmware/OS level release. As such when people like Nokia say they have fixed the problem, what they really mean is that they have fixed it in any future phone that they put out and everyone else is screwed.

This is more a wakeup call that phone manufacturers and carriers are totally irresponsible bordering on criminally neglegent when it comes to actually protecting these devices and that has more to do with their genuine business interests than technical limitations. Of all the carriers everywhere, only Sprint has any tangible plans to build an upgrade service for phones.

 

[goodcow]

What do cell phone viruses actually do?

 

[Phoenix]

What do cell phone viruses actually do?

They can do the same thing that any normal virus can do:

send SMS spam on your minutes, delete contact lists, transfer contact lists, copy images from the phone, etc. Your phone is really just a really really really weak PC - so anything you can imagine being done to your PC can be done to your phone.


And once again, the only sandboxed environment that is immune to these effects is Java by nature of its design (though even it has a few 'functional' holes in it)

 

[Manics]

It's about time. I was beginning to think those lazy virus writers would never get to mobile phones.