The first virus that is capable of spreading from one cell phone to another has been unleashed by a group of underground virus writers who call themselves 29a, reports New Scientist. This first virus to spread via a cell phone network can only infect advanced "smart" phones that run on the sophisticated Symbian operating system and have a Bluetooth connection. Called Cabir, the virus itself is harmless in that it has no malicious code and has only been circulated by researchers in a controlled laboratory setting. The underground virus writers sent the code to anti-virus vendors on Tuesday, who have since verified through lab tests that it can be spread from phone to phone, reports New Scientist. "This is the first virus to spread from phone to phone," said Graham Cluley, a consultant at the anti-virus software vendor Sophos in Oxford, England. So far there are no known cases of it "in the wild." Still, the news is chilling as other virus writers could use this as a basis for other worms that are damaging and could potentially bug calls or delete phonebooks, calendars, and diaries stored on smart phones. Cabir functions differently than a computer worm in that it does not exploit a vulnerability in the operating system. "It exploits the way the phone is supposed to work," explains Cluley. Before a phone accepts a file, it routinely asks owners if they want to download it. So unwitting users thinking it is something else could potentially say yes to a virus. "It is only going to be infecting people who say, yes please, hit me on the nose," Cluley told New Scientist.
|