Computersight -

Can you imagine life these day without mobile phone? It must be pretty fearsome isn’t it? From a basic communications tool, the mobile phone has been given a new lease of life by the internet. Now you can get online on your mobile. The things you could do on your internet PC or notebook, you now can also do on the mobile phone. What convenience!

Nevertheless, the mobile phone has also inherited the problem previously associated with the PC – virus and lots of it. Currently, there are over 350 mobile viruses. More worrying is that the number is expected to grow further as wireless phones and personal digital assistant (PDA) networks increase and become more complex.

The
Wikepedia
stated that the first instance of a mobile virus occurred in August 2004, when it was discovered that old company called OJAM had engineered an anti-piracy Trojan Virus in older verson of its mobile phone games Mosquito. The virus sent short message service (SMS) message to the company without the user’s knowledge.

In July 2004, computer scientist released a proof-of-concept mobile virus named Cabir, which replicates itself on Bluetooth wireless networks. When a phone is infected, the message “Caribe” is displayed each time the phone is turned on. The worm attempts to spread to other phones in the area using wireless Bluetooth signals.

Cabir is completely harmless and the problem is unlikely to get as bad as it has with PCs. Other mobile malware include Commwarrior, Duts, and Skulls. For so long, spyware and malware had been one of the biggest problems for PC users. Now the same problem is being faced in the mobile phone space.

However, experts believe that if everyone plays his part to combat this virus problems, it can be hampered and will not be as bad as how PCs were facing such problems. It also encouraging to hear that the major mobile phone manufacturers, anti- virus companies and operating system manufacturers like Symbian, Microsoft, and Palm are working hard to address these problems.

Well lets hope that something positive will come out of these initiatives. On another note, experts also foresee mobile criminals to be on the rise. The internet scams have made cyber criminals filthy rich in the cyber space. The mobile phone, with its fast growing number of users, is a perfect platform for these crooks to get their unsuspecting victims.