For the tech-savvy and phone-addicts, the message summoned visions of a nasty piece of software disabling the entire mobile network.
The text message was brief, warning you against receiving calls from two Chennai mobile numbers infected with a virus.
For the tech-savvy and phone-addicts, the message summoned visions of a nasty piece of software disabling the entire mobile network.
The text message is scary. It is also, apparently, a hoax. Network security experts were sceptical about the ability of mobile phone viruses to spread through voice channels, though they did not rule out that possibility.
“I think it (the text message) is most possibly a hoax,” said Sahir Hidayatullah, a network security consultant.
Mobile phone viruses are still in their infant stage. The first virus Cabir was discovered in 2004. The mobile phone viruses are not yet potent, said Rion Dutta, a network security consultant who has advised foreign mobile companies.
The current crop of mobile viruses is the ‘first generation’, he said. The viruses of the ‘next generation will spread faster and will be more destructive as their creators will discover serious vulnerabilities in mobile phones, he said. They will probably emerge within a year, he added.
The ominous text message also said that the virus could infect any cellphone receiving a call from its host. But experts said that is very unlikely for most viruses to only infect phones running on the ‘Symbian’ software.
This observation is confirmed by a scrutiny of the website of the F-Secure, an antivirus company. Most of the viruses listed there infect Symbian phones. But, many old phones in India still don’t run on Symbian.
Currently, mobile phone viruses spread through data transfer such as text messages or multimedia messages (MMS). They ‘jump’ from one phone to another using the short-range medium called bluetooth.
The target sees a message on his mobile screen inviting him to install the software. When he accepts the message and opens it, his phone is infected.
But if the user chooses to delete the infected message without opening it, the virus will not be able to infect the phone. That is why experts recommend deleting messages from unknown sources without opening them.
It wouldn’t hurt to install anti-virus software on your mobile phone either, they say. Most importantly, they stress on keeping the phone’s bluetooth connection closed keeping it invisible to a virus.
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