Viruses Find A New Host: Cell Phones

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.)

Comments

Reg Free NYT Link

[Anonymous Coward]

New York Times Article Registration Free

Re:API

[bloodrose]

Silly problems will arise whether or not an API is present or not. Murphy's Law and all.
The only thing one prevents by locking out developers is a steady pace of progress.

Bound to happen

[maharito]

As cell phones became more powerful (and more like PDA's and computers) this was bound to happen. Unfortunately, with the adoption of GSM in the United States, that means the virus in question can be spread to US phones with the same vulnerability, as 911 is equivalent to 110 and 08 on most GSM carriers.

This is also a small part of the reason that the push was made for Java enabled phones, as there is less of a security risk (albeit still a small one) in running Java apps due to the construction of the language.

There is a somewhat heartening end to this story though. Sprint and other wireless carriers provision signed updates to phone firmware all the time over the air. Most times these updates include communications updates for new versions of software running in the MTSO or in the towers, but this sets a welcome precedent: Security updates can be pushed out to all phones of a particular model when they are first released. This way, a carrier will have no customers lingering months or years behind on updates (a la Windows XP and Windows Update) because the customers do not have to have the presence of mind to update manually, nor do they get to pick and choose what updates they want and what updates they don't.

Re:This is only going to get worse

[Blue Stone]

It might not end up being too much of a problem:

There is no fooling them now.... Youth look to basic functions first.

96% of all 15-24 year olds now own a mobile phone. It is so central to the lives of young people that technology companies wishing to market new devices with added functionality must ensure that new "improved" models still operate smoothly as a phone. Whilst SMS text messaging has been a huge success with this particular age group there is huge frustration with technological updates that do not give optimum performance such as 3G, MMS and WAP technology.

Young people have grown up with high functioning phones. They are simply not prepared to replace them until something equally functional is available.
22 year old Greg explains; "My Nokia has a stand by time of about 2 weeks. This (3G phone) barely lasts two minutes."
Is it perhaps for this reason that 3G as a service and 3 as a brand has not completely captured the imagination of the youth market?
One 19 year old explains: "There is some quite interesting stuff on there - the goals, the video clips and calls - but there's no way I'd get one until they sort the phone side of it out."

Young people do not want to risk investing in technology which might not deliver.
Liz studying at Art College explains; "It's pointless launching a phone that doesn't work as a phone - you'd have to carry two handsets with you, have two contracts."

Findings published by the ROAR consortium based on extensive qualitative research including placement and deprivation exercises, in-depth interviews and focus groups as well as interviews with 1063 nationally representative 15-24 year olds show young people would rather wait until new technology can be guaranteed to deliver on its promises before they will invest in them. Many are adopting a "wait and see" policy when it comes to 3G.

79% of 15-24 year olds neither own nor intend to own a 3G phone within the next 12 months

Video calling and messaging mean that youth will have to learn a new vernacular and at present find it slightly uncomfortable.
24 year old Joanna said; "My brother in law has 3 already, so I was video calling him, and it is funny we get on really well normally, but those calls felt a bit awkward."

Most 15-24 year olds feel that the ability to use the visual aspect of the video calling and messaging can be both unnecessary and unwelcome. They feel more pressurised to tell the truth and worry about their appearance.

During a two week trial period of 3G handsets the ROAR consortium found that although most 15-24 year olds were initially impressed by some of the media content found on 3 they tended to be less enamoured by the end of the trial.

One male respondent said: "You did think wow premiership goals - and it was quite cool being able to get them first of all but even though it was free I wasn't bothering to do it that much."

When there are faster and easier means of accessing the content currently provided on a 3G handset can 3 really compete against this climate of media saturation?
The research highlighted a way forward for 3G technology. While there are obvious issues with the basic functionality of the phone, there are also lessons to be learned from other areas of technology. Young people want to be able to share the media content they download and 3G doesn't allow them to trade movie clips with each other, making the experience more solitary. Similarly, it gives young people no options for customisation: they can not make it their own.
Similarly, 3 could learn from the likes of Sony, Nokia and Apple companies which have earned the trust and respect of many 15-24 year olds creating products that are easy to use and fit well in their lives. These brands have been innovators and are known for producing products that operate effectively. Young people aspire to own these brands. Toby from Milton Keynes said; "I'd buy a Sony minidisk, cos they invented them, they know what

71% of e-mails sent to cell phones is spam

[killbill!]

DoCoMo blocks about 55 percent of the one billion text messages that reach its servers each day because of suspicious return addresses or attachments. Another 26 percent of those messages are blocked by DoCoMo users who have programmed their handsets to turn back unwanted mail or spam.

Looks like the state of the cell phone is getting close to the dire state of the net in Japan.
And the 3G revolution is now coming our way.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Especially those with a pay-for-incoming-SMS/e-mails (or pay-for-received-data) scheme.

Re:costs

[whiteranger99x]

just like how all the software companies should be held liable for thier faults. The only thing is no matter how good a programing job one does there is always a way around it.

I couldn't agree more, there will always be someone around to circumvent or exploit exisiting code for their own purposes, be it good or evil. While I don't like playing the blame game with software companies and software, they should be liable for any damage their software (intentional or otherwise), especially if it interferes with emergency or mission critical systems. Of course, maybe I'm being too idealistic, or Polyanna as it were...

Bluetooth phones

[Anonymous Coward]

We actually some research at my university with bluetooth devices. It seems that if you send a bluetooth enabled cell phone a packet of data that it does not recognize (picture, text file, anything), it will crash the phone and force a hard reboot. We stumbled onto this while doing security tests on the actual bluetooth signal using a test kit.