Slashdot Mirror
Anti-virus Vendors Eye Cell Phones
coastin writes "Are cell phones and handheld devices the next big market for anti-virus software vendors? While there have been more than 150 cell phone viruses discovered since 2004, compared to over 150,000 Windows PC viruses the count seems low at this time. Marketing researcher Gartner suggests a widespread attack could surface by the end of next year. With the number of cellular devices sold in 2005 far beyond that of Windows PCs and no choice of anti-virus protection for most cellular device customers, should the cell carriers listen more closely to the anti-virus vendors?"
most of the content on my phone is uploaded from a pc. symbian 60 smartphones are hugely popular here in europe and most of the people i know upload from pcs. the viruses that are out there pretend to be games, apps for installation on the phone. the 2 s60 phones i have had defaulted to only installing signed apps. to install a virus i would have to turn this off and accept a whole pile of warnings about unsafe apps. viruses on symbian are like viruses on macs. anti virus companies seeking to expand their markets.