Expensive malware appears for Microsoft's Windows Mobile

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: the terminal of geoff goodfellow <geoff () iconia com>
Date: June 5, 2010 2:04:24 PM EDT
To: dfarber () cs cmu edu
Subject: Expensive malware appears for Microsoft's Windows Mobile
Reply-To: geoff () iconia com

Malware embedded into legitimate-looking games designed for Windows
Mobile has appeared, automatically dialing up foreign telephone
services to ring up hundreds of dollars in illicit charges for users
behind their backs. ...

... Critics have chafed at Apple's secure software signing model and
have praised Google's alternative Android model, which enables users
to download software from any source, without any security model in
place, at their own risk.

The appearance of malware on Windows Mobile is particularly
interesting because the motivation of this assault was entirely
financial. That being the case, the fact that the malicious developers
targeted Windows Mobile, which is almost entirely limited to the US
and now trails Symbian (42%), RIM (21%), and Apple's iPhone OS (15%)
in market share (9% over the last year), throws decades of
Windows-based punditry on its head because "malicious hackers"
supposedly only target the largest platform.

iPhone security features deter malware

Just the fact that Apple has a real security policy in place for
iPhone mobile software in its iTunes App Store serves as a strong
deterrent for rogue developers from even attempting to distribute
malicious iPhone OS software like the tainted games discovered for
Windows Mobile.

Jim Finkle, writing for Reuters, claimed that "hackers are
increasingly targeting smartphone users as sales of the sophisticated
mobile devices have soared with the success of Apple Inc's iPhone and
Google Inc's Android operating system," but in reality, any attacks
aimed at iPhone users are not software based expressly because of
Apple's strict security policy, and must be limited to social
engineering exploits that prey upon people directly, rather than
infecting their devices with malware.

Android users (just like Mac and Windows users) have no similar
security protection in place, and should be very careful about
downloading software, even from legitimate appearing websites. Unlike
desktop malware, which is somewhat limited in the scope of damage it
can cause, mobile malware has the ability to rapidly run up very
expensive mobile bills for weeks before the user is likely to even
notice a problem.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/04/expensive_malware_appears_for_microsofts_windows_mobile.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6535TS20100604




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