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Viruses Find A New Host: Cell Phones

Posted by timothy on from the call-all dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A NYTimes article (free reg) describes the dangers posed by viruses as 3G and text-messaging become more common, inluding an incident in '01 where numerous phones in Japan began calling 110 (equivalent to 911 in the U.S.). Wired mentions 13M vulnerable phones in Japan alone." (And that was a few years ago.)

14 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. They are not Viruses by phunster · · Score: 4, Funny

    They are Virii

    1. Re:They are not Viruses by Aliencow · · Score: 4, Funny

      And we're both genii !

  2. today's dilbert addresses this issue by civilengineer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Antivirus software makers did this

    --

    New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
  3. Re:nothing is safe.. by pvt_medic · · Score: 5, Funny
    Oh its much much worse than that. With the growing trend of electronics being networked and intigrated into a bigger system think of the fun a virus could have.

    • Your fridge goes crazy and starts attacking you with ice cubes.
    • Your coffee machine makes something tasting like crap.
    • Your garage door shuts on the car as it backs out.
    • And the laundry machine fills the house with soap suds.


    Oh what a virus writers dream. A whole house on the fritz.
    --
    30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
    Score:5, Troll
  4. Re:should be easy to fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Japanese #1: "My phone has a strange message, what does it say?"
    Japanese #2: "I do not know. I don't read ASCII either."

  5. Great, Goatse on my cell phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    I can just see the next slashdot.org article now:

    Security flaw with MMS discovered - hackers can send you images anonymously and crash your phone!

    My phone's gonna crash and the last thing that's going to happen is that I'm going to be Goatse'ed?!

  6. Re:nothing is safe.. by murphyslawyer · · Score: 5, Funny
    • Your coffee machine makes something tasting like crap.

    Even worse, your Nutri-matic drink dispenser could start producing beverages that are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

    --
    I ain't evil, I'm just good looking.
  7. Never got one by finelinebob · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cell phone viruses? Text-message spam? Never seen on- ... hold on, my phone just beeped ... looks like I've got 53 new text messages...

    No, make that 67....

  8. Re:More gadgets = more complication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    As people buy more and more stupid software, their lives become geometrically more complicated. Personally, I have a computer and I use it for...computing! No stupid web, messaging, taking pictures or whatever the hell people are doing with computers these days. Etc..

    You're just scared of technology you're not used to. Get over it.

  9. Re:...AV conspiracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Reminds me of today's Dilbert:
    http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/imag es/dilbert2003111108929.gif

  10. In the Future... by hao2lian · · Score: 2, Funny

    What's next? A firewall for cell phones?

    --
    Pelé!
  11. Re:nothing is safe.. by NattyDread · · Score: 2, Funny
    Your fridge goes crazy and starts attacking you with ice cubes. Your coffee machine makes something tasting like crap. Your garage door shuts on the car as it backs out. And the laundry machine fills the house with soap suds.

    You don't need to wait for a virus. children are more than capable of all of these activities!

    Oh, wait ....



    --
    Maybe the rain Isn't really to blame. So I'll remove the cause, But not the symptom!
  12. Re:nothing is safe.. by jd_esguerra · · Score: 2, Funny
    Your coffee machine makes something tasting like crap

    Too late.

  13. Virus HAH!!!! by Prince+Vegeta+SSJ4 · · Score: 2, Funny

    have you seen the quality of new homes these days, mine does this all by itself.