So CA is accusing F-Secure of FUD around the mobile threat. Not hugely interesting (amusing, yes, but interesting? No – glass houses.)
However, one extremely interesting data point in F-Secure’s self-defense post is that Mikko Hypponen from F-Secure has been hit by mobile phone viruses FOUR times:
Is the threat real? Yes it is. I know, because I’ve been hit four times myself. Of course I’m running our antivirus on my phone, so I haven’t actually been infected. But a Bluetooth virus has tried infecting my phone four times so far. Twice in Helsinki, once in Stockholm and once in London.
Personal anecdotes are always interesting when used as proof points. My own anecdote is that Mikko is the first person I’ve ever heard of who has been attacked by a bluetooth virus. And he’s been attacked four times.
Has anyone else out there ever been hit by one, or have a friend who was infected? Is this a European problem? (It definitely would explain my lack of first-hand knowledge.) What kind of false positive rate does the detection software have?
Friday one of my friends asked for help with his N70, and when I looked at it I noticed it had CommWarrior. He didn’t know how he got it. I think it’s quite understandable, because he isn’t used to computers and especially S60 computers.
That made me wonder how frequent these viruses are and I remembered this post. I changed my phones bt settings so everybody could see me and yesterday I got my first carib.sis on a train from Paris to Brussels. For me it was quite funny, but I can imagine how someone else would have installed it.
S60 devices are sold as normal phones and users doen’t understand that they can do something farmful by answering yes instead of no, to a question they don’t fully understand. Most users don’t know they can install software on their phone, so those questions can look quite bizarre.
-Heikki
Maybe it’s just that Bluetooth virii are big in Portugal – try going around shopping centers with ur bluetooth turned on and don’t tell me a BT virus doesn’t try to attack you. I quit having my BT turned on in public places because virii like Cabir just keep trying to spread and send messages to your phone.
So before you call someone a liar, do your research.