Virus Danger for Mobilez

The virus is all set to go mobile. With the cellular phone providing net-enabled features like e-mail, instant messages, multimedia, browsing etc, virus writers who hitherto attacked computers are readying to upload viruses onto mobile phones. In all probability, 2008 might see mobile communication devices become the latest victim of the virus.
At stake is destruction of valuable data and experts say the viruses can worm their way into other devices or networks through infrared, Bluetooth or WAP. And the most worrisome factor is disruption of services can be much more in the case of mobile phones as they vastly outnumber the number of personal computers in the world. Security experts apprehend that the virus can spread much faster in the case of the mobile phones due to the fact that practically everyone has one. The kind of threat in the offing could be gleaned from the fact that there are around five lakh viruses on the prowl on the Internet. While it took almost 20 years for the mischief-mongers to create three lakh viruses, it just took a year for the computer-savvy criminals to make two lakh viruses in 2007.
Jari Heinonen, vice-president (Asia-Pacific) of F-Secure, says that as mobiles have outnumbered PCs, cyber criminals are beginning to target the wireless networks. Already there are hundreds of mobile viruses/worms on the prowl to hack into gullible users' devices. F-Secure experts, who have mapped the shifts in Internet crime trends since 1986, believe that India, along with Mexico and Africa, could be the next hotbed of Internet crime more so on the mobile front. The trend is expected to continue and spread into Central America, predicts Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. Even Macintosh OS-based Apple's iphone, that claimed not to be fetched by any malicious malware, was found to be affected by a trojan on January 10 this year.

Vishal Dhupar, MD, Symantec India, says: "As phones become more complex, more interesting and more connected, we expect attackers to take advantage and trick users into giving valuable information. As banks are moving closer toward making services available on mobile devices, the threat factor is getting greater. Symantec found 18,424 unique phishing URLs. Banks continue to be the most phished sector with 52% of these URLs spoofing financial institutions."