NationStates Jolt Archive

PARIS, Jun 15, 2004 (AFX-Asia via COMTEX) -- What is being described as the first ever computer virus that can infect mobile phones has been discovered, anti-virus software developers said on Tuesday, adding that up until now it has had no harmful effect.

The French unit of the Russian security software developer Kaspersky Labs said that that virus -- called Cabir -- appears to have been developed by an international group specialising in creating viruses which try to show "that no technology is reliable and safe from their attacks".

Cabir infects the Symbian operating system that is used in several makes of mobiles, notably the Nokia brand, and propagates through the new bluetooth wireless technology that is in several new mobile phones.

If the virus succeeds in penetrating the phone, it writes the inscription 'Caribe' on the screen and is then activated every time that the phone is turned on.

It is able to scan for phones that are also using the Bluetooth technology and is able to send a copy of itself to the first handset that it finds.

According to the anti-virus software developer F-Secure, the discovery of Cabir is proof that the technologies are now available to create viruses for mobile phones and that they are now known to the writers of computer viruses.

Don't have a link, stole it from the Word of Mouth Debate Society forums.

uh o...

That sux.

Why? How does it suck? All it does is write one word.

It shows that they are vulnerable to harmful viruses, which does suck, but that has been the truth for a long time. So, what sucks about this virus?

At least it doesn't do much of anything.

It's the the virus itself that anyone is scared of, its the fact that viruses can now be on phones, making room for a lot of computer nerds to develop viruses that can do much worse to your phone.

It shows that they are vulnerable to harmful viruses, which does suck, but that has been the truth for a long time. So, what sucks about this virus?

I just said that. But, like I also said, that has been the truth for some time. There hasn't been a new development which makes phones open to viruses, it's just that until now there hasn't been a virus. Unless you said "Wow that sucks" before this came out you have no reason to say "Wow, that sucks" now

There's been an email going around the internet for years warning that there is a virus in the mobile phone system. Until I see a few news reports on this, I'll assume that this has stemed from that same email..

Straight Dope go read it and see if it is true before you panic. If it's true go ahead and panic if it makes you feel good.

Actually the reason why it "sux" is that other virus writers will most likely exploit this. It opened a new frontier, just like the first "macro" virus. So technically...it does suck. Oh it won't suck for antivirus writers cause, well they profit from it.

This virus can be altered just like the mydoom one. Ppl can create variants. That is also why this virus sux.