By LANCE GAY
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Security News Home
Until a year ago, the concept that someone could infect a computer while just passing by seemed like a pipe dream.
Today, it's the digital age's nightmare.
Following the appearance of viruses that infect cell phones from a distance, security experts wonder if computers running home digital television sets, burglar alarms or even global positioning systems could be similarly infected and disabled.
Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering at the security software firm Symantec, said he expects in the future that someone just walking through a house with an infected cell phone could pass viruses to home computers or any other device with a wireless connection.
"I think we are looking at threats crossing platforms," said Huger.
Huger said the appearance of cell-phone viruses that can be transmitted through wireless connections were only theoretical until a year ago, when a version of the Cabir virus turned up on two cell phones displayed behind glass windows in a California cell-phone store.
The exact method of infection isn't known, but it's suspected that a passerby transferred the infected viruses through a wireless connection.
Huger said the first generations of the virus were innocuous, but the virus writers released their computer source codes on the Internet, providing vital information to other virus writers. Other versions are appearing that keep cell-phone connections active to run down the battery and run up fees. "The first version was Cabir-A, and we're already up to Cabir-T," he said.
Some experts predict that if cell phone virus writers follow the same pattern as the writers of worms and viruses did with personal computers, the innocuous viruses will soon be followed with malicious versions that do damage; not far behind would be viruses that operate like spyware on computers to steal information.
