RSS
After Five Years, Apparently The Mobile Virus Flood Is Really Coming This Time
from the we've-been-waiting dept
For about five years, there's been an effort to whip up hype around the supposed threat of mobile viruses and malware. Pretty much all of that hype's come from
Some academic researchers are now saying that the only thing holding back a tidal wave of mobile malware is that no single operating system has sufficient market share, but once one hits 10 percent, phones running it are dead meat. But that argument doesn't wash, nor do the researchers' claims that an MMS-based virus could infect an entire population of devices in a matter of hours. First, the market share figure doesn't make a lot of sense, given that platforms like Nokia's Series 40 already feature in hundreds of millions of devices, creating a large target population. Second, MMS messages still have to travel through operators' servers, so they're much easier to scan for malware than PC-based communications. As long as operators' malware filters are working as they should, it won't be too difficult to stop the spread of an MMS virus. But perhaps the biggest factor holding back mobile malware is that there really isn't any money in it for virus authors. Botnets of mobile phones aren't much use for sending out spam, and generally, the money trail created by any sort of premium-message scam can be relatively easily tracked. The closed nature of mobile networks and mobile devices makes them much less susceptible to malware than internet-connected PCs, and no amount of hype will change that.
12 Comments | Leave a Comment..
- 'The Economist' And 'Financial Times' Already Writing Off ACTA As Dead
- Newspaper Boss Says Newspapers Need More Money... Because New Media Steals & May 'Destroy Civil Society'
- If The Internet Is Treated Just Like The Offline World, We'd Never Have Ridiculous Laws Like SOPA/PIPA
- Can Facebook Really Bring About A More Peer-to-Peer, Bottom-Up World?
- The Pirate Bay Press Release On SOPA: We Are The New Hollywood
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
I'd like to add that as long as usage based billing continues, the first monthly bill after being infected is going to be a pretty strong incentive to address it. I wonder how successful botnets would be if home broadband were charged by the MByte.
Finally, like MACs, malware for mobiles is going to be a niche market. Why bother when there are so many internet connected WINTEL computers out there connected to all you can eat broadband?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
So, is the threat real?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: So, is the threat real?
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
it might not be possiblte MMS wise...
Bluetooth is not regulated...
But yes you'd have to be pretty stupid to let someone you didn't know send you a bluetooth file.
So I expect it to spread like wildfire
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Disagree
Maybe not email spam, but they could be used to send SMS spam.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Mobile Security
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Bluetooth
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
False premises
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
following the money
I think I need to patent the business model of increasing revenue by creating malware/virus/trojans that infect mobile phones, with the real intent being to increase monthly data/message usage, and thus increase those revenue sources in the mobile phone industry.
When it comes out in a few years that the first 'mobile phone virus' was really created (via contracted outsourcing of course) by the same mobile phone company that sold the phones in the first place, with the only intent being to squeeze more money out of their sheeple(tm), you can say you read it here first.....
Flips tinfoil hat to shiny side out - it works better that way on sunny days.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Add Your Comment