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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?"
I can now spend 30mins removing norton from my customers mobile phones aswell! yay!
Most people have no idea what they are doing, and are silently panicking on the inside.
How would an AV scanner affect my battery life? Would it constantly run residently, waiting for me to download something? If it halves my battery, no thank you.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
They would have to create one. Microsoft is going to eventually shut down their most lucrative market since consumers are more likely to trust Microsoft's own virus solution rather than pay a 3rd party. (I'm not saying that it is actually true that Microsoft is a better security guardian, but that's how average people are likely to react.) So the virus software vendors are about to become frantic for an alternate source of revenue.
Not that I support censorship in any way, but do not the cell companies have very tight control over their networks, and thus the data flow over them? What's to prevent them from disallowing certain data (i.e. known viruses) from flowing to their customers?
<sarcasm>I mean honestly, can't they just check the evil bit?</sarcasm>
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
Part of the reason I don't use anti-virus software, other than because they slow down and hamper your computer, is because they are the ONLY corporate entity that literally have it in their self-interest for a virus to show itself once in a while on your computer. I'm not saying they write the damn viruses (I'm not saying they don't either) but I do think they try to make sure something will slip by once in a while, just to keep it in the public's mind that they need this software, so that they'll keep it installed and pay for upgrades.
Of course on my linux side I have no virus problems, but it's also been ages since I've dealt with a windows virus, because I keep things updated and use better web browsers and email clients, and I also strongly suggest the same practises to people I know, people who I know will come to me for help when they get one. Viruses just aren't a problem if you use your computer intelligently and remain somewhat suspicious of odd behaviour.
All I'm saying is that it's sort of counter-productive, if you think about it, to have an entire industry who's very existance depends on malware, and who, if they are doing their jobs, would eliminate their very reason for being there in the first place. (Sure, the police are the same thing, but that is exactly why the police are a public entity, and not corporately owned.)
I'm sure Verizon would be very interested in cell phone virus software if it can help them continue to prevent customers from using software other than Verizon's own software.
But I doubt that such software would be used to improve service or reliability from the customer's point of view.
Why does my phone need to have the ability to execute malicious code in the first place? A phone does not need a web browser, chat client, and e-mail client. A phone certainly DOES NOT need any sort of scripting engine. Why did the cell phone manufactures go and add vulnerabilities into the phone in the first place?
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
So "Virus Scanners" for cell phones today will only protect against those ~150 threats that exist today. By definition, you can not protect against all future threats today (because if you could, your OS provider would have already done so).
Once threats become more widespread, the concept of a "Virus Scanner" will become more plausible.
you should read everything on the internet as if it had "but I'm probably talking out of my ass" appended to it.
It sounds to me that the 'stupid person' here was the engineer that designed a user interface that didn't allow the user to say 'no means no'.
The feature of javascript that allows programs to repeatedly display popups requesting a code download is a serious bug. It is the result of the Netscape mindset that the content producer 'owns' the user experience, not that the user does. It isn't the only think Netscape screwed up in the service of their real customers, the companies buying the Netscape servers and PSO engagements.
I believe that there will be a market for cell phone anti-virus but not one that McAfee and Symantec are likely to make money from. The wireless customers are going to consider this the problem of the carriers, they are right. Anti-Virus systems for cell phones will all work at the network level.
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Personally, until mobile wireless broadband (e.g. HDSPA, EVDO, etc.) services become more pervasive and not to mention MUCH cheaper, I don't think there will be a huge problem. Viruses don't spread through the air - they would require the terminal device to be active and connected.
Assuming a piece of malware could activate the data radio at pre-determined times (e.g. late at night), it could really run up the bill for those who don't have unlimited data plans.
Another avenue of attack, which I see as most likely in the near future (especially for pocketPC users) are malicious websites. Not a whole lot of research seems to be going on in mobile vulnerability development, but when research increases, there will be a problem. Of course much of the research will probably be funded by the AV companies or their subsidiaries. I'm sure you've seen the job postings for security engineers and researchers at companies like symantec so don't deny it.
Now that mobile networks and fixed networks are converging, they really resemble fixed networks, thus controls that work on fixed networks will probably work on the mobile networks with little modification.
Firstly, terminal devices, especially J2ME capable ones have reasonable controls by way of very granular permissions that are found in any java runtime environment. I'm not however aware of how extensive the controls are at the OS level. If operators are smart, they will be rather restrictive with these permissions.
Lastly, network controls need to be in place. Perhaps this will be a good use for Unified Threat Management firewalls, which could possibly be placed at the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) level.
The next 12 months will be very interesting. I certainly don't look forward to having to install Norton AV on my Samsung i730!