First mobile phone virus discovered

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9860240%255E2,00.html

 From correspondents in Paris
June 16, 2004

THE first ever computer virus that can infect mobile phones has been
discovered, anti-virus software developers said today, adding that up
until now it has had no harmful effect.

The French unit of the Russian security software developer Kaspersky
Labs said that that virus - called Cabir - appears to have been
developed by an international group specialising in creating viruses
which try to show "that no technology is reliable and safe from their
attacks".

Cabir infects the Symbian operating system that is used in several
makes of mobiles, notably the Nokia brand, and propagates through the
new bluetooth wireless technology that is in several new mobile
phones.

If the virus succeeds in penetrating the phone, it writes the
inscription 'Caribe' on the screen and is then activated every time
that the phone is turned on.

It is able to scan for phones that are also using the Bluetooth
technology and is able to send a copy of itself to the first handset
that it finds.

According to the anti-virus software developer F-Secure, the discovery
of Cabir is proof that the technologies are now available to create
viruses for mobile phones and that they are now known to the writers
of computer viruses.

Anti-virus experts have been warning for months that mobile phone
viruses are set to multipy, given the increasingly diverse uses of
mobile phones.

Agence France-Presse



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