It appears it's McAfee's turn to spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in the Symbian world. I quote from their press release: "By comparison, a mobile threat... could infect up to 200 million connected smartphones simultaneously because the majority of these devices do not currently have mobile security protection installed". What rubbish. Read on...
Read on in the full article.
In the beginning I thought that it was a great concept to have mobile antivirus security for symbian devices. I've since been converted because I realize that its up to the user whether or not the phone gets infected.
I've read lots of comments and presently have gone through several emails from people asking for help on getting the virus off of their phones. And I always ask them... well how did it get on their in the first place?
I don't think we are dealing with mobile insecurity, but more so mobile stupidity (pardon me if that was too harsh) but its true. Users open their phones up to this. Not to mention that these companies never show a disclaimer on how to avoid getting the virus... or at least I haven't seen any.
I dunno... maybe I'm wrong. Then again, I'm typing before coffee!!:tongue:
And, worth bookmarking (hopefully), or at least sending the URL to your teenage friends... 8-)
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/viruscleanup.htm
As the Hitchhiker's Guide used to say, DON'T PANIC!
Steve
Ewan,
I think there is indeed a danger - albeit not such a huge one, the reason being exactly the same one as in the PC world: the same type of guy who will double click on any attachment that comes along his way will also press "YES" on all of these queries.
I have at least once seen such a beast trying to infect *my* phone in the wild, and it's only a matter of scaling effects until this gets more common.
Having said that, mobile antivirus software is a good thing for all these people, so from that perspective the marketing is fine with me: anybody gullible enough to believe these numbers should go ahead and buy the software, as it will be exactly the kind of person who will install just about anything.
Yes, fair point. Though it will make all their phones run slow... 8-(
I mainly rail against these press releases because I can't bear to see all the hyperbole and exageration.....
Steve Litchfield
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/
Its going to get even harder for completely stupid people to manage to infect their phones 'accidentally' as its likely that the s/w installer will not install the app regardless of the number of times the user attempts to say 'yes'. Indeed the user wont even get the opportunity to say yes, many devices will simply refuse to install the app if its not signed (and NO thats NOT the same as Symbian Signed). If its self signed, there is probably not alot of damage it can cause - e.g. it shouldnt be able to access core filing system areas, bluetooth or SMS subsystems etc so cant replicate very easily, cause PSMS billing events etc.
Unregistered99 wrote:Its going to get even harder for completely stupid people to manage to infect their phones 'accidentally' as its likely that the s/w installer will not install the app regardless of the number of times the user attempts to say 'yes'. Indeed the user wont even get the opportunity to say yes, many devices will simply refuse to install the app if its not signed (and NO thats NOT the same as Symbian Signed). If its self signed, there is probably not alot of damage it can cause - e.g. it shouldnt be able to access core filing system areas, bluetooth or SMS subsystems etc so cant replicate very easily, cause PSMS billing events etc.
VERY good point. So even less need for a-v companies in a Symbian mobile future....
Steve
I have a friend with a Treo 650. He told me that last week it began acting strangely: alarms stopped ringing, other agenda functions stopped working...
He also noticed that his McAfee subscription for the phone had expired. Once he renewed it all functions returned to normal.
Of course, the phone is a corporate deal so he just expensed it.
Brilliant on McAfee's part!
dgduris wrote:I have a friend with a Treo 650. He told me that last week it began acting strangely: alarms stopped ringing, other agenda functions stopped working...He also noticed that his McAfee subscription for the phone had expired. Once he renewed it all functions returned to normal.
Of course, the phone is a corporate deal so he just expensed it.
Brilliant on McAfee's part!
So in this case it was McAfee itself that was the trojan! 8-)
I seriously worry about the performance impact on smartphones of having unnecessary anti-virus and firewall utilities running all the time and interfering with incoming and outgoing data packets.
Steve