Virus to attack wireless devices next
By Woo Siew Chin
5th June 2002 (Business Computing)

Wireless devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) alike are becoming targets of virus writers and hackers.

This is not surprising as Anthony Kuo, regional product manager, Asian region global marketing for Trend Micro Incorporated, expects more viruses to develop as wireless devices gain more popularity among the masses. But, according to Kuo, this would take some time.

"Mobile phones are liable to be infected by wireless viruses similar to that of PDA viruses," says Kuo.

This possibility is evident in the incident where NTT DoCoMo's I-mode system was infected with a virus that sent a particular message to users on the network.

Users who received the message were prompted to click on a hypertext link, that automatically dialled an emergency service number, causing that service to be overloaded.

Though the I-mode users did not experience any devastating effects on their mobile devices as the virus infected the network and not the mobile phones directly, Kuo believes that in the future, virus writers may target mobile phones directly.

"It is possible for mobile phones to be directly infected as long as there is a software program running," says Kuo.

Unsolicited wireless spamming, disruption of voice communications, and overloading of data networks are just some of the few consequences of these PC-based viruses and soon-to-be mobile phone-based viruses.

However the state of increasing viruses written for such wireless devices would depend on the hacker's personal gain or agenda.

One criterion is that the operating system (OS) must have wide usage.

In the case of PDAs, it is the more popular OS such as Windows CE that will most likely be hit by viruses, hence more liable to be infected, says Kuo.

"For the Palm OS, currently around 20 to 30 viruses have been found," reveals Kuo.

One of the more popular Palm OS virus is the Palm OS Phage, that targets the Palm handheld platform and infects all third-party application programs when executed.

The infected executable files corrupt other third-party applications in the host Palm handheld, thus wiping out data.

This Phage virus can also spread to other devices especially when the infected Palm is synchronised to a PC or when a Palm beams data via an infra-red link to another Palm.

With mobility gaining importance and mobile Internet coming into the limelight, the struggle against viruses appears never ending.

Anti-virus companies are now being forced to go a few extra miles to protect their clients' systems and devices or succumb to being in the shadow of their competitors.