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Worm Developed for Nokia Series-60 Phones

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the reducing-cell-phone-calls-is-not-a-bad-thing dept.

Tuxedo Jack writes "It had to happen. The first worm designed specifically for cellular phones has been developed, and Cabir appears to be a way of effectively killing Nokia Series-60 cellular phones via shortening the battery life due to scanning for nearby Bluetooth devices and propagating itself. This still relies on a user to open it, so hopefully that won't be many, and those that do must use a file manager to find and kill the worm. At least it isn't a dialer!"

6 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Dangerous Potential by CommanderData · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It had to happen sooner or later, with people predicting the cell phone will be your next computer.

    I guess Series 60 phone owners should be thankful that it just drains battery life. What if the worm sent 80,012 text messages to everyone in your contact list! Imagine the cell network congestion and billing chaos that would ensue... Lets hope cell phone manufacturers start tweaking their phone OSes to prevent that kind of disaster in the future!

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    Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
    1. Re:Dangerous Potential by dave1791 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How about a worm that set the phone to silent mode or whatever they are calling the "beep just once, shut up and vibrate" mode these days? There would actually a worm with a noble purpose.

  2. Simple Fix by Brain+Stew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bluetooth should be turned off out of the box. If an end-user is smart enough to know they want Bluetooth, they probably won't get hit with this attack.

    --
    "Here's a spoiler: You're will die alone."-Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
  3. Yes, but how long until there is a dialer? Or... by Dagny+Taggert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...better yet, a dialer that propagates itself and then sends out pre-recorded sales calls. This may sound crazy now, but will it sound crazy three years from now?

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    Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
  4. Uh, yeah. by dannyelfman · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Right, no one *EVER* opens attachments.

    ``Oh look, Johnny sent me a new ring tone''

    ZAP!

    Until software companies will devote serious time to making sure their products aren't vulnerable like this, we will continue to see these types of monkey business.

  5. anti-virus software people jumping for joy by Nonillion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess now the anti-virus software people now have themselves a new market to penetrate. I guess windows boxes were not enough to maintain their business model.

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    "I bow to no man" - Riddick