RSSTrend Micro Tests Smartphone Antivirus
By David Worthington | Published July 23, 2004, 8:53 AM
Last month, in a proof of concept, the first smartphone worm wiggled its way onto phones running the Symbian operating system. The worm -- named Cabir by Kaspersky -- has not yet been found in the wild, but has still managed to catch the attention of antivirus vendors.
Cabir exploited a serious flaw in the Bluetooth wireless standard that permitted the worm to propagate itself onto all Symbian phones that were within range. Symbian smartphones are set with a high degree of trust for other Symbian-based devices, due largely to Symbian's historically malware-free atmosphere.
In the wake of last month's incident and resulting higher demand for mobile antivirus solutions, Trend Micro is seeking beta testers for its new Mobile Protect software for Microsoft Smartphone 2003.
Mobile Protect will be positioned as an antivirus and SMS spam detection solution available to service providers, enterprises and end users. Features include: real-time, on access and on demand scanning; SMS whitelists and blacklists; the option for automatic SMS alerts to receive updated patterns; event logging; and a flexible installation.
The beta program will run from August 15 through September 25, 2004. Customers who already own a smart phone can apply for the beta by sending an e-mail to Trend Micro.
This wouldn't be an issue if manufacturers focused on the only two important issues in mobile phone design:
audio fidelity
signal integrity
Phones do not need: games, web browsers, cameras, or for that matter color LCDs.
What does color on your phone sound like?
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|To my knowledge MS Smart phones runs win CE not Symbian. So Trend Micro is trying to spin-off one programmes efforts to proof a failure in Symbians Bluetooth implementation and creating paranoia. And make a lot off $$$
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|I'd have to disagree with you there. I own an O2 XDA II (Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphones), and tying up the PDA and phone sides of things makes a great deal of inherent sense. It's fantastically useful being able to have one device that I keep with me at all times (as it's my mobile phone), which can also access all of my key business information. I have access to my email, I can take pictures of anything written up on the whiteboards (more useful than you'd think!), I can store documents and meeting minutes on it, and, when I get truly bored, as it's a powerful little thing, I can play a bit of Quake ;)
Having all this functionality in a device that you will take with you everywhere (as it's your phone), and setting the contact management and information storage up in such a way that it's all categorised sensibly, you can easily find any piece of information that's necessary. I can see what I was doing on a given day or at a specific time, I can cross-reference that with who I called, any documents I was working on or notes I took, and syncing it up with both my work and home PCs gives me the failsafe that if anything DOES go wrong, I've always got backups.
This, coupled with the ability to phone, send file via bluetooth, and send SMS or email as the situation dictates, leaves you with a device that I find useful several times a day while I'm at work, and handy (but admittedly just mostly cool) when I'm not.
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|Why is everything Microsoft's fault? Heck, I would do a lot of things differently were I Bill Gates, but most security issues are not really his fault--it boils down to the NT kernel, which dates back to the early 90's when NO ONE could have imagined the Internet being anything close to what it is today. Regardless, this is not Microsoft's OS, so don't blame them...
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|Here here!
Why didn't David Worthington just leave Microsoft out of this article? What is the point in intentionally misleading the reader by punting a Trend Micro "Microsoft Smartphone" tool based on the fact that the Symbian Alliance has a rather serious bug in their Bluetooth stack? C'mon, what happened to responsible reporting???
David Worthington, are you a Microsoft-hater by any chance, or is there something else driving this article?
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|Agreed. cell phones don't "need" that stuff, but never underestimate marketing.
On cell phone viruses: Didn't anyone see the Terminator series? Is "Skynet" really coming soon?
Sure, it’s a good chuckle, but out of the minds of imaginative people, the possibilities of real threats are sometimes predicted.
The exact events of 9/11 were written about over a decade ago...
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