Thursday, February 10, 2005
Epoc.cabir, the herpes simplex of phone viruses.
Almost incredibly I caught a wild bluetooth virus today. Walking down the street I got bluejacked twice from someone called "Kash", and the message payload was a virus. Just 6 months ago, epoc.cabir was described as the first "proof of concept" symbOS virus that could spread between phones. Only Nokia 3650s, 6600s, and N-gage's are vulnerable, and then only if they have bluetooth set to "discoverable". When you receive the message, it asks to install a program called "caribe.sis", that hijacks your bluetooth connection, attempting every 20 seconds to send itself onwards. It doesn't do any harm to your phone, though it drains your batteries pretty fast.
Interestingly, just like a real virus, a symbOS virus with few or any symptoms is the only kind with a chance to survive in the real world. Most bluetooth viruses are actually being "caught" right now from downloads off the web. epoc.cabir is clearly more successful. Since bluetooth transmission is only effective over about 5 metres, and hardly anyone has bluetooth on and switched to discoverable, transmission must occur very rarely. If the virus caused major problems, phone users would take action to disable the virus before it could spread. A virus that lies unnoticed by the user (after initial installation) is the only kind that will ever get a chance to "breed".
In that respect Epoc.cabir, is a lot like herpes simplex. One in three Americans has herpes. Mostly after you first catch herpes, you would never know it was there. Sure some people get plagued by sporadic cold sores, and a few die from encephalitis, but mostly you would never know you had it. Herpes isn't as contagious as ebola or marburg, but because it hangs around forever, it still manages to spread.
The incidence of epoc.cabir is likely to grow and grow. However it's not going to last forever, at least not in the UK, because phone users here typically change handset every 12-18 months. Which must be the reason why 02 and Vodafone aren't worried enough to arrange some kind of mass recall.
Almost incredibly I caught a wild bluetooth virus today. Walking down the street I got bluejacked twice from someone called "Kash", and the message payload was a virus. Just 6 months ago, epoc.cabir was described as the first "proof of concept" symbOS virus that could spread between phones. Only Nokia 3650s, 6600s, and N-gage's are vulnerable, and then only if they have bluetooth set to "discoverable". When you receive the message, it asks to install a program called "caribe.sis", that hijacks your bluetooth connection, attempting every 20 seconds to send itself onwards. It doesn't do any harm to your phone, though it drains your batteries pretty fast.
Interestingly, just like a real virus, a symbOS virus with few or any symptoms is the only kind with a chance to survive in the real world. Most bluetooth viruses are actually being "caught" right now from downloads off the web. epoc.cabir is clearly more successful. Since bluetooth transmission is only effective over about 5 metres, and hardly anyone has bluetooth on and switched to discoverable, transmission must occur very rarely. If the virus caused major problems, phone users would take action to disable the virus before it could spread. A virus that lies unnoticed by the user (after initial installation) is the only kind that will ever get a chance to "breed".In that respect Epoc.cabir, is a lot like herpes simplex. One in three Americans has herpes. Mostly after you first catch herpes, you would never know it was there. Sure some people get plagued by sporadic cold sores, and a few die from encephalitis, but mostly you would never know you had it. Herpes isn't as contagious as ebola or marburg, but because it hangs around forever, it still manages to spread.
The incidence of epoc.cabir is likely to grow and grow. However it's not going to last forever, at least not in the UK, because phone users here typically change handset every 12-18 months. Which must be the reason why 02 and Vodafone aren't worried enough to arrange some kind of mass recall.
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