Security news
Security news16 June 2004
Customers unlikely to encounter Cabir mobile phone virus, Sophos reports
 |
| The Cabir worm will only work on mobile phones running the Symbian operating system. However, there are no reports of anyone being infected. |
Sophos virus experts have advised customers not to panic, following media reports of the first virus to infect cell phones.
The Symb/Cabir-A worm runs on the Symbian operating system, used by mobile phones such as the Nokia Series 60. However, despite hysterical reports from some members of the security community the virus does not appear to be in the wild, and seems unlikely to spread without the recipient being aware of it.
"The Cabir worm attempts to spread via Bluetooth to other compatible mobile phones in their vicinity, but recipients have to confirm they wish to receive the worm before it can infect them," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The only way this virus looks like it will spread is by anti-virus researchers sending it to each other in their high security laboratories. Users probably need to be more concerned about the large number of malicious Windows worms spreading around via email and the internet at the moment."
Sophos advises cell phone users that they can protect themselves against many types of Bluetooth threats by turning off the "visible to others" Bluetooth setting in their phones. This protects against being sent unwanted malicious programs or from unexpected, unwanted (and possibly even unpalatable) messages.
In November last year Sophos reported that some mobile phone users were worried they had a virus after their phones were "Bluejacked".
Sophos reminds users that although laptops, printers and other devices may have Bluetooth support they cannot be infected by the Cabir virus as they do not run the Symbian operating system.
"Mobile devices (PDAs and phones) have been theoretically vulnerable to viruses and Trojans for some years, but there has been very little malware written," continued Cluley. "The variation in details such as OS version, firmware revision and device characteristics in the mobile arena has resulted in a "moving target" for virus writers. This is one reason why there is not currently a large threat to mobiles from malicious code. The virus writers seem much more interested in attacking the old faithful target: Computers running Microsoft Windows."
