Newsday has an article about the first Cell phone virus being found in a cell phone in a mall in Santa Monica, CA. It was the Cabir virus which only drains the battery of the cell phone faster then normal, but can be the start of more dangerous viruses. They can wirelessly infect phones nearby via Bluetooth.
“It’s not the end of the world, but it does show us how more dangerous viruses or malicious viruses could spread, especially as the number of smartphones increases,” said Marie Clark, a representative for F-Secure.
A hacker called Vallez, part of a group called 29A Labs, claimed responsibility for Cabir. “Our goal is to create new, unique, interesting viruses,” the group says on its Web site.Symbian, a company whose cell phone operating system is susceptible, said Vallez’s motive was likely to gain kudos.”This is just a new place where you have to be smart, and you have to protect yourself,” said Kari Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Bluetooth special interest group.
Recipients would have to manually accept the infected file when a message appears on the phone’s screen. The phone would then display text Caribe-VZ/29A, identifying the author’s intended name for the virus, the author’s initials and the hacker group.