Cellphone virus emerges
2004-06-17 12:01
Paris - A computer virus that can infect cellphones has been discovered, anti-virus software developers said on Tuesday, adding that up until now it has had no harmful effect.
The French unit of the Russian security software developer Kaspersky Labs said the virus - called Cabir - appears to have been developed by an international group specialising in creating viruses which try to show "that no technology is reliable and safe from their attacks".
Cabir infects the Symbian operating system that is used in several makes of phones, notably the Nokia brand, and propagates through the new bluetooth wireless technology that is in several new cellphones.
If the virus succeeds in penetrating the phone, it writes the inscription 'Caribe' on the screen and is then activated every time that the phone is turned on.
It is able to scan for phones that are also using the Bluetooth technology and is able to send a copy of itself to the first handset that it finds.
According to the anti-virus software developer F-Secure, the discovery of Cabir is proof that the technologies are now available to create viruses for cellphones and that they are now known to the writers of computer viruses.
Anti-virus experts have been warning for months that cellphone viruses are set to multiply, given the increasingly diverse uses of phones.