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Nokia Phone Gets Virus Protection

Posted by timothy on from the prophylactic dept.

wan-fu writes "After all that talk about bluetooth vulnerabilities and mobile phone virii there will finally be a mobile phone with virus protection. Nokia's 6670 smart phone will be released in October and features software from F-Secure. Perhaps this will raise the eyebrows of some other mobile phone manufacturers to step up and increase their security policies for their phones' operating systems."

7 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by pHatidic · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Am I missing something here?

    Why not just make a phone that is secure in the first place and can't get viruses. This has to be the worst marketing ploy ever.

    1. Re:Hmm by Taladar · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Because people want more and more features.
      Marketing people want people to believe they want more features.
      --
      Linux is not Windows
  2. I just want ... by Homology · · Score: 3, Insightful

    a mobile telephone that is just that : a telephone. And I most certainly don't need a mobile telephone whose OS is so insecure that it needs an anti-virus program.

    1. Re:I just want ... by Vicsun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...then buy a telephone which is just a telephone. Those who want more bells&whistles will get a phone with more bells&whistles.
      I never got while people complained about today's phones being too complex; older phones, which are just that - phones, can still be purchased and can be purchased at a price lower than a 'new' phones can.

    2. Re:I just want ... by EvilNTUser · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Goddamnit, stop modding these posts up. They're about as insightful as saying that a computer should just be a calculator.

      --
      My Sig: SEGV
  3. Re:Same old problem by invisik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think dial-up internet users have trouble keeping their def's up to date, yes. Broadband users, however, typically leave their computer on all the time, so the automatic updating usually works. Norton Antivirus has gotten a lot smarter in catching the latest defs when it can, not on a set schedule anymore.

    Will anyone update their phone? Hopefully it has automatic updates that "just run" when the phone is on and idle. Of course, that has yet to be seen.

    Overall, I agree with the others--a phone should be secure enough from the get-go to not need all this overhead.

    -m

    --
    http://www.invisik.com
  4. I'd rather see Nokia patch the OS by tero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article states that there's nothing in the phone that makes it particularly susceptible to viruses and that Nokia knows of no capabilities within any of its devices that a virus might exploit. Fair enough, I suppose, but what happens when one day they release a version which has a bug in it.

    The AV software subscription seems to be an monthly based fee type thingy. (Hats off to F-Secure, looks like they're right there on the bleeding edge of squeezing money out of everything).

    What I'd really like to see is Nokia (and other manufacturers) taking their responsibility and offering online (or SMS based) free updates to their OS.

    I don't want to be forced to subscribing into some monthly fee based bloodsucking anti-virus scheme just to be able to use my phone without having to worry about viruses turning my phone into SMS spamming zombie.

    Even Microsoft releases patches every now and then, why not Nokia (and other cell phone manufacturers)?