February 19, 2005

First Mobile Phone Virus in USA

Oh virus writers, how we hate thee! It was only a matter of time before we discovered the first cellphone virus here in the states. This one is called "Cabir", which was found in the Philippines eight months ago.

It has already spread to 12 countries and into 15 deriavtive strains. The virus spreads over Bluetooth short range wireless connections and drains your battery. Luckily this is relatively harmless. Can you imagine that in the future, I'm sure there will be viruses that call random international phone numbers in the midde of night to rack up your phone bill. Not looking forward to that one.

Unlike computer viruses that spread quickly around the world via the Internet, Cabir spreads slowly because it travels only over short distances through a wireless technology known as Bluetooth. It also requires a user to restart the phone after it has been exposed for the virus to take hold.