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Presenting Simworks Anti-Virus |
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Page 2 of 2
The
current risk to most mobile users is fairly low, however this will
definitely change as the year progresses. Obviously, anyone that uses
Bluetooth or that downloads applications from the web faces a greater
risk of receiving something that could damage their phone. Anyone that
regularly downloads unsigned applications from the Internet, especially
warez (Ed. note: warez is a common term for illegal pirated software),
is at extreme risk??€�many of the people that crack these applications are
starting to insert malicious code into the cracked files. Warez is
presently one of the primary vectors for the spread of Symbian malware.
We expect malware for the Symbian platform to rapidly increase in
sophistication in the short term as virus writing groups get more
organized and as a result of the publishing of source code for the
likes of Cabir and Velasco. People new to the Symbian platform will be
able to study the code for these proven threats and incorporate their
functionality directly into their own applications.
Several Symbian phones already ship with security software and it's
clear to us from the discussions that we're having with the handset
vendors that there will be a lot more shipping with security software
by the end of the year.
The introduction of 3G data services may have a similar effect to the
spread of malware on phones as always on Internet connectivity has had
on the desktop. The reason for this is not because 3G data services are
always available (this always on connectivity has been available to
Symbian users for years via GPRS) or the higher bandwidth of 3G
connections. However, the huge investment by operators in 3G will mean
that they will be heavily promoting the use of 3G data services and
perhaps pricing them quite aggressively. It may be that the
introduction of 3G data services will exacerbate the spread of malware
on the Symbian platform not because of the availability of the service
but because of the changing behaviors of mobile phone users.
Operators will definitely need to consider deploying some form of
antivirus service to their customers in tandem with rolling out 3G data
services to meet this threat head on. WAP was a promising technology
that delivered an initial poor user experiences which ultimately made
it a consumer failure. Likewise, if consumers data experience is not
safeguarded then some early negative experiences of application
download may lead to a backlash against data services which considering
the level of investment by operators would be a disaster of
significantly greater proportion than WAP.
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