Monday July 19, 2004

First cellphone/PDA virus?
From today's papers:

"Hand-held computers have come under attack from a virus for the first time, it was revealed today.

Called Duts, the virus attaches itself to files on machines running Microsoft software and infects nearby machines whenever an item such as a business card or game is sent wirelessly. Experts fear the discovery could pave the way for the first mobile phone viruses which they say would be "virtually impossible" to protect against. They admit they are struggling to track how many copies of the new virus exist."

"According to Mark Sunner, of computer security company MessageLabs, mobile phone viruses could be almost impossible to stop.

He said: "The problem is that a phone is just too small to run anti virus software. It could be a huge problem and phone networks need to take a serious look at the problem. Desktop virus software looks for more than 90,000 viruses and that just won't fit on a phone."

London Evening Standard

Another reason to get a Java phone? :) (2004-07-19 08:02:29.0) Permalink