Mobiles to receive virus protection
Mobiles to receive virus protection
Mar 14, 2005: Virus software designed to protect smart phones and PDAs from the increasing risk of attacks by hackers is going to be released soon by Kaspersky Lab in a bid to curb this rising trend.
The fear of threats has been on people's minds for years, although this has not been possible because mobile phones were not powerful enough to carry viruses and because hackers never tried to attack the systems due to the diversity of the different platforms.
Recent viruses, such as CommWarrior and Cabir, have caused problems on mobile phone services and Bluetooth connections which has backed up the need for anti-virus software.
Graham Titterington, an analyst for Ovum, said that the leading anti-virus vendors have been eagerly awaiting this opportunity to extend their market for a long time.
"The key word, however, is "slowly". There is no need to panic! But end users should keep a watching eye on developments. The viruses and worms around today are not very virulent and carry little damaging "payload". They require user actions to activate themselves, such as clicking on attachments. But this could change quite quickly."
Titterington believes that as mobile phones and handhelds become even more complex, attacks will become even more frequent on these devices.
He believes that the need for anti-virus software will increase over time to the extend that we currently see with PCs.
"Longer term, we can look forward to malicious code that can hijack the phone and use it for its own purposes. Image a virus that sends obscene messages to your mother-in-law, or indeed your boss. Not a heartening prospect."
Titterington also advises users to be aware of the quality of the back-up services for monitoring and identifying threats when choosing which anti-virus product to buy.
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