Don't Mistake A Lull In Mobile Virus FUD For Its Disappearance

from the have-they-forgotten-about-us? dept

Tue, Mar 20th 2007 1:10pm — Carlo Longino

Just because it's been a while since we'd talked about a security company spreading some FUD about mobile malware, doesn't mean that it had stopped. While the main purveyor of the stuff, F-Secure, seems to have chilled out a bit, other vendors are carrying on. This time, it's Kaspersky, with one of its analysts going into a Faraday cage with a German TV crew, and intentionally infecting a phone with the Cabir virus, so "everyone in the room understood that mobile malware is a real threat." It certainly is a threat when you infect the phone intentionally and ignore all the warnings it throws up, but the real risk of your phone getting a virus remains negligible. You've still got to wonder why, if mobile viruses are so common, why a TV crew would need to go into a Faraday cage (that's impervious to radio waves, but not to PR stunts) and have to get a security firm to put on this sort of demo. After all, if our phones are at such great risk, couldn't they have just found somebody with a virus?

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8 Comments

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Derrick Hinkle, 20 Mar 2007 @ 3:31pm

Good point. Cell phone viruses will never be a real threat. Theres just people after money. *first post*
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|333173|3|_||3, 21 Mar 2007 @ 3:57am

phone viruses will only be a problem when they are commercially worhtwhile.

Going into the faraday cage would have meant that the virus would have been transmitted directly from one 'phone to the other, which seems slightly pointless, since the signal could just as easily have been sent accross a normal room.
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Pete, 21 Mar 2007 @ 7:01am

While I agree that the risk is low and the FUD is high in this case, I did get some interesting comments from folks who claim to have actually received cellphone viruses in the wild when I called F-Secure on it. See the comments in my blog entry here: http://spiresecurity.typepad.com/spire_security_viewpoint/2006/07/mikko_hypponen_.html
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kurt wismer, 21 Mar 2007 @ 2:46pm

the only FUD here is techdirt's
sorry pete, but in *this case* there is no FUD except that being spread by the author...

had the author actually read the kaspersky labs blog entry he'd have seen that they were showing the camera *how* cabir infects, not trying to prove that it was a serious threat...

in fact it was explicitly stated that only a few instances of cabir were known to be in the wild in all of germany, so the author is pretty much putting words in kaspersky's mouth when suggesting that kaspersky has claimed it's a common threat...
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Chet Uber, 23 Mar 2007 @ 11:56am

Stunt or not, does not matter
The fact that it is or isn't a PR stunt doesn't really matter. Cell phones can be infected by malicious code; and as cell phones and PDA's come together the threats will become a real issue. Just because companies are trying to make money, doesn't mean that the threat is not real. It is surely not pervasive, but it is indeed a potential risk. This risk should be evaluated, and the appropriate countermeasures applied to meet the surety needs of the individual company. Certainly a larger threat is allowing cell phones with cameras into board meetings, and as high quality bugging devices.
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techtalk, 13 May 2007 @ 8:28am

MyMobiSafe.com
If you have been to MySpace lately you may have noticed the MyMobiSafe profile page at http://www.myspace.com/mymobisafe. www.MyMobiSafe.com is said to launch on 6/1/07 and it sounds like an awesome site to watch for. MyMobiSafe.com will provide the first handset universal antivirus application for cell phone users. Basically it offers cell phone protection for every user. I don’t know if it is a promotional thing or not, but their MySpace page says it will only be $3.99 month. Finally, antivirus protection that is handset compatible at an affordable rate. While McAfee and the others are still charging annual fees, MyMobiSafe.com is redefining the industry. It is about time someone came along to challenge this industry!
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Cheryl Jones, 27 May 2007 @ 5:45pm

Safety in Cells
Get ready for a new twist in the telecommunication world. It's called safety in cell phones and if a person reads the FBI webpage, they will learn that people need to beef up on cell phone security. Today, hackers can steal a persons personal information through the cell phone. Please informed about software available to protect you. Nice going Mymobisafe.com. Looks like your breaking into the needs of the public just in time. Good Luck!
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vik, 30 Apr 2008 @ 11:16am

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Know more about it at
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