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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."

27 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 pyrros · · Score: 4, Informative

      >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.

      Because people want more and more features. Series 60 phones from nokia can run user-installed programs, and we all know what happens when you mix ease of installation (browse to a WAP/web page) and clueless users.

      Still, the right aproach would be educating users and using some kind of sandbox model:

      "pr0napplet wants to make a phone call"
      [Allow] [Deny] [Always] [Never]

      But I completely agree that bundling snakeoil is NOT the way to go. Moving the antivirus arms race to mobile phones will only hurt the phone market in the long run: when your PC gets 0wned, most of the time you just lose the use of your bandwidth: the spam you send does not immediately hurt you. Should your phone get 0wned, you'll probaly run a service bill in the thousands of dollars (or euros). Once word gets out, some people will be too scared to use a smartphone.

    2. 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
    3. Re:Hmm by Val314 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >Because people want more and more features. Series 60 phones from nokia can run user-installed programs, and we all know what happens when you mix ease of installation (browse to a WAP/web page) and clueless users.

      no, Companies want to sell those features, but most People just want to make phone calls.

    4. Re:Hmm by pyrros · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Fair point, however I DO want more features on my cellphone. I'd love an applet that lets you use your phone as a remote via IR/BT (and such an applet indeed exists for S60 phones), a GB/GBA emulator, a dice roller app for pen-paper-and-phone rpgs, and there's also another app that remotely controls emule.

      Ok, I admit that a lot (most?) of people who buy an expensive phone would be better off buying last year's (month's ?) model for half the money, but some people out there actually want the blinkenlights.

      (Now if only Apple gets the 6230 working with iSync...)

    5. Re:Hmm by jyristys · · Score: 2, Informative
      Still, the right aproach would be educating users and using some kind of sandbox model: "pr0napplet wants to make a phone call" [Allow] [Deny] [Always] [Never]

      Funny you should mention that, because that is pretty much exactly what new Series60 phones do. Also, the only way to get a midlet you write the full rights is to have it signed by the manufacturer of the device or the operator.
    6. Re:Hmm by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, slashdot geeks want to believe that (almost) everyone agrees with them, but in my experience that's not the case. Almost everyone I know who has a feature-filled mobile bought it specifically for one or more of those features. For example, I bought mine because of the integrated camera, bluetooth and ability to run Java apps. A coworker tried for weeks before finally being able to get the phone he wanted, based on its capabilities. He hardly ever sends text messages and doesn't make or recieve many calls, but uses the PDA features and some of the available software all the time.

      Maybe the situation really is different in the US, but here in the UK at least, people genuinely want these features.

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
  2. Viruses Exist on Cellular Telephones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They do? Good thing I have a phone that just makes calls. Who would have thought of that nowadays?

  3. 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 caldfyr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree. There will always be a simple option for buyers. Personally, I like having things combined, especially when I'm in the airport. When I'm trying to pack light and don't want 40 pounds of carry-on, having a PDA that plays video, checks email, and lets me make phone calls is a godsend.

    3. 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
  4. Will the phone have.... by kdougherty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Automatic updates?? That would be interesting...

    --
    The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -Alan Kay
  5. Good! by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    The first time I get a phone call that says "Hi! How are you? I call you in order to have your advice! See you later! Thanks," I think I will kill someone.

  6. Same old problem by someguy456 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't think I know of a single person who keeps their virus definitions up to date (most of my friends use Linux, the rest aren't very computer-literate). Does anyone really think people will sit download virus updates for their frieking cell phone?

    --
    Robert Bindler
    A Computer Science student's views on technology.
    1. 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
  7. A solution looking for a problem by leathered · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good score for the marketing people. Buy our phones and get protection against those nasty viruses. Right now the chances of your phone getting infected are practically nil, and most phone viruses have been demonstrated by AV firms themselves to help seed a market for them in the future.

    --
    For all intensive porpoises your a bunch of rediculous loosers
  8. Anti-Virus by whiteranger99x · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, as long as I don't have to sacrifice my Britney Spears ringtones, it's ok with me...

    Wait, I didn't mean Britney Spears ringtones, I meant Slayer ringtones! Yeah, rock the fuck on dudes!!!!

    --
    Join the TWIT army now!
  9. 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)?

  10. 1. Fear, 2. Anti-fear, 3. Profit by Slinky+Saves+the+Wor · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Selling virus protection for a phone is a good way to to get money. IF you don't have it, you could be vulnerable to the most devastating, horrible virus which does all kinds of bad things, deletes your contacts, fills your calendar with crap, melts your phone and rots your brains, right? Get the virus protection and you will be safe, right?

    And remember to upgrade your protection, otherwise you won't be safe, right? So let's make a deal, 9.99 e for a yearly subscription.

    Now you are safe!

    Until the next horrible virus... So don't ever forget to pay. OR ELSE!!

    --
    I do not moderate.
  11. Re:I just want ... a multitude of devices by Judge_Fire · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "a mobile telephone that is just that : a telephone. "

    Yeah and cars are cars and planes are planes. No place for CD players, clocks, complex error prone computer systems and whatnot.

    Telephony is just a feature and I can't see any particular reason why it should deserve a dedicated box.

    I don't particularly want to carry a multitude of individual plastic/metal containers for each feature that I may need daily, such as a calculator, clock, camera, calendar etc.

    So perhaps these damn thingies, phones, PDAs, laptops etc. should be called something new and neutral. Any ideas?

    J

  12. Nokia: fix the OS first by quigonn · · Score: 2, Informative

    I do Symbian OS programming for a living (Symbian OS is the OS that was once EPOC on Psion and now drives a number of mobile phones, including Nokia Series60/80/90 and UIQ [Sony Ericsson P800/900/910]), and I have to say, from the security aspect it's one of the worst operating systems I ever saw. It has absolutely no security measures (besides a trivial buffer overflow checker in TDesC and derived classes), no permission system, nothing. The only really secure part that I saw in it was the Java sandbox.

    So, my call to Nokia: get another OS vendor, try not to use Symbian OS anymore, and switch to e.g. Linux like Motorola did: it would be a relief for a lot of programmers, and help overall security on handsets and other mobile devices of your company.

    P.S.: from the theoretical point of view, Symbian OS is great: it's AFAIK the most widely deployed microkernel operating system. But theoretical greatness doesn't help you with practical security issues...

    --
    A monkey is doing the real work for me.
  13. Re:Cool...Sorta by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since all phone trafic travels through their networks and all software is propreietary there is no reason for viruses to be able to spread.

    Analysing and removing the packages that contain virus data could be done on the server level much more easily than at the client level, also by charging for the service they are allowing users with phones that don't have virus protection to become infected and increasing the threat of infection to their other users.

    Basically they are screwing everyone in order to eventually offer virus support.

  14. Uh oh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can see it now...


    [Ring... ring...]

    Hello?

    How are you. I am back. My name is Mister Hamsi. I am seeing you. Haaaaaaaa. You must come to Turkey. I am cleaning your cell phone. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. Gule. Gule.

  15. really picky, but: no such thing as _virii_ by toomanyhandles · · Score: 2, Informative

    See here:
    here
    "virii" doesn't work as a plural.

  16. Re:Cool...Sorta by t0shstah · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except you don't know what you are talking about. This article refers to the Nokia 6670 which runs the Symbian OS which allows 3rd party applications to be written in C++ or Java and installed on the phone. Therefore, viruses are just disguised as the latest piece of neat software and some people will blindly install them, infecting their phone. These mobile viruses simply infect a single host, as yet they cannot replicate between devices and i'm not sure how they could do as even when they are online they don't have anything more than a presence through the gateway. I'm sure i'll be proven wrong in the future.

    My phone flashes up a warning when installing any new software, but you are relying on people actually taking some responsibility for their devices... something which the new virus outbreaks every day proves doesn't happen.

    Ok, so they could be trying to make the operating system more secure, but your assertion that they could just "analyse packages on the server level" doesn't make any sense because that simply isnt the attack vector.

  17. Re:Cool...Sorta by mobileTen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not so simple to stop viruses at the server or network. The phones can use Bluetooth and data connectors to download programs. The first virus for a phone was spread via Bluetooth. Therefore the Network is not the only place where users can download (infected) programs. And would not be a happy day if the networks went back to limiting where you could download content or software to your phone from? And would not be a happy day if the networks went back to limiting where you could download content or software to your phone from.