Technology experts believe that most cellphones are not yet so powerful to be
affected by viruses. The next generation of web-enabled cell phones will be
vulnerable to viruses, they say, when users can download applications for cell
phones from the Internet.
Viruses
need an operating system, which runs applications in a read-write memory
environment, so that they can stay resident in the system and attack it at the
first opportunity. If the operating system and any applications are executed
from a Read-Only memory, viruses can´t survive and reproduce themselves to
spread to other systems.
Recently there has been an increase in friendly virus warnings about cell
phone viruses, which, till now have proved only to be hoaxes. One such virus
warning reads like this:
Attention - everyone with a mobile phone!
This is not a joke, this is an early warning.... If you receive a phone call
and your mobile phone display reads:!? UNAVAILA-BLE!?, a virus will erase all
IMIE and IMSI information from both your phone and your SIM card, which will
make your phone unable to connect with the telephone network. You will have to
buy a new phone.
This is a very old warning, which seems to have somehow resurfaced again in
India. This warning was also a hoax. There is no such reported virus. Viruses
are not spread through the mere answering of a typical telephone call on your
cell phone.
Also, the message "Unavailable" on some cell phones means that you
are receiving a call from someone whose caller ID is not available and is not an
indication of trouble.
CELL PHONE: THE NEXT FRONTIER?
For malicious computer hackers and virus writers, however, the next frontier
in mischief could be the cell phone. A phone virus or "Trojan horse"
program might instruct your phone to do extraordinary things, computer security
experts say. Of course, the handset and the services provided by your cell phone
company also need to be powerful enough to become vulnerable to the cell phone
virus attacks.
When this is the case, the phone virus might forward your personal address
book to a telemarketing firm. Or it could simply eat into the phone’s
operating software, shutting it down and erasing your personal information.
"If a malicious piece of code gets control of your phone, it can do
everything you can do," says Ari Hypponen, a computer security expert.
"It can call numbers. It can get your messages and send them
elsewhere."
We should think of cell phones as just another set of computers on the
Internet. If they’re connected to the Internet they can be used to transmit
threats and attack targets, just as any computer can. It’s technically
possible right now.
SMS AS A VIRUS CARRIER
In Europe, it has been reported that, short messaging service (SMS) has been
used to randomly send pieces of binary code that crashes phones, forcing the
user to restart phones. A new, more sinister version keeps crashing the phone
until the SMS message is deleted from the carrier’s server. In India,
thankfully, relatively primitive cell phone technology will keep users immune
from such attacks, for some more time.
John Draper, of Stockton, California is known as ´Captain Crunch´ for
pioneering the hacking of phone networks with the help of a whistle to produce
different tones. For today´s virus writers who want to wreak maximum havoc,
there are still very few cell phones that can support the execution of virus
code, and no common operating system platform like Windows to attack.
Virus code needs smart phones that allow third party downloads of
applications to run on the cell phone. The new features of WAP technology will
probably bring the first true cell phone viruses, as it will enable mobile
phones to interact with Java applets.
MY MOBILE, DUMBEST!
Cell phone users can easily avoid this risk of viruses, of course, by
sticking with their "dumb" phones. These "dumb" phones can
also come under attack from outside. As the use of SMS spreads, and the e-mail
to SMS feature becomes popular - viruses like "Timophonica" which had
originated in Spain, can play havoc. This is not really a cell phone virus that
actually infects the phone and makes it go bad, as do computer viruses, but an
e-mail virus which generates random cell phone numbers and floods those phones
with SMS messages sent via e-mail.
If you send enough e-mail to cell phones on a particular network, it can
basically jam up the network and possibly even jam up the phones. It’s not a
virus but more a form of spam, clogging the cell phone with unwanted messages.
Usually, you store less than 100 phone numbers in your cell phone. Still, the
potential for mischief exists. And even if your cellular phone is backed up, the
consequences of losing your key business phone numbers could be costly, if you’re
thousands of miles from home and unable to restore the backed up information.
SIMPLICITY, THE BEST POLICY
Ultimately, it is theoretically possible to send a virus that could erase a
cellular phone’s memory–just as a computer’s hard drive can be erased. But
so far there has been no such case.
Still, it’s wise to backup all your data, including the phone numbers in
your automatic-dial feature. (What if you lost your cell phone?) You can write
the telephone numbers on paper.
And if you are eagerly waiting to buy newer and newer models of cell phones
with new features - take a second look at the features. The more the
convenience, the lesser the security. It´s your choice!
Ashok Dongre