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Is the latest Trojan virus Skulls.B (found in Nokia 60 series cell-phones)
a signal that PCs & telephony convergence is finally upon us? Well
almost, if we accept that the data security battle has extended
from PCs/Internet into the mobile phone arena.
Brief History
The first mobile virus was a worm named Timofonica. This worm
hit GSM phones in Spain in the year 2000. Relatively harmless, this
virus caused no damage to cellphone users - it simply generated
calls to customers of the Spanish cellphone company Movistar and
spread disparaging messages about the company! (Giving rise to speculation
that its creator was a disgruntled employee.)
Fortunately, Timofonica was not "malicious" in so far that it did
not destroy data.
From a technical point, this virus was propagated via the computer
network, and did not use the available cell-phone network in any
way.
Watershed
Around June 2004, a new network worm called Cabir was detected.
Cabir affected Bluetooth cell-phones that use the Symbian operating
system. Every time the 'infected' mobile phone was turned on, Cabir
would launch itself and scan the area for other phones to infect,
sending a copy of itself to any it found.
Obviously targeted at high-end mobile instruments (with Bluetooth
connectivity), Cabir (like the earlier Timofonica) was essentially
harmless insofar it did not cause damage to cellphone users.
From a technical point however, Cabir can be considered as a 'watershed'
in the development of cellphone viruses - because Cabir propagated
itself thrugh the cell-phone network (more specifically via Bluetooth).
Interestingly, Cabir is also considered as a "proof-of-concept"
virus for cell-phones - as it was the first to use a wireless network
to propagate itself and caused absolutely no damage - almost as
if to prove that cellphone viruses were technically feasible.
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(More)
Similarities Between PCs & Cellphones
Nokia-promoted "Symbian" is the leader in the cell-phone
Operating System market. Just like Windows in the PC market.
So it seems quite natural that cell-phone viruses tend to
attack cell-phones running on "Symbian". Just as Windows
based computers are prime (sole?) targets for PC viruses.
In both cases, the objective to affect the maximum with
minimum effort!
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Malicious Intent
In November 2004, some high-end mobile users were attacked
by the Trojan Skulls virus. Developed for mobile phones based on
Nokia Series 60 (Symbian operating system), the Skulls virus effectively
replaced system application files with dummies. In this manner,
it disabled all "smartphone" features of high-end Nokia models (like
SMS, MMS, Web browsing & built-in camera) - leaving the phone good
for voice calls only.
Skulls.B is the next (latest) variant of Skulls. It also installs
the Cabir worm - which helps propagate itself via Bluetooth!
Look
out!
The latest cell-phone viruses could be considered as a signal that
mobile phones are on their way to becoming full-fledged PCs.
Look out for more sophisticated offerings !
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