Last week I asked whether the recent report from Kaspersky Labs about the rise of Symbian OS-based mobile viruses was all hype or not [1]. A few readers wrote in to take sides, here were two of the more provocative perspectives:
The fact that Symantec and other AV companies are the only ones that do PRs every 6 months or so about mobile viruses, while you never hear about it from the user end makes you suspect that this is a non-existent problem being puffed up by AV companies to hopefully prime a new market and may be even in hope of attracting the attention of hackers to divert some of their energies to mobile phones so that they can sell some more AV software. -Anonymous
Actually Brian, this is true--I have witnessed it first hand in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait where most people carry two cell phones and using Bluetooth for file (photo/trivia) exchange is very common. Viruses, specifically for Symbian-based phones are rampant. Our Sales Executive there had to get his phone back to the workshop to get it fixed after a Bluetooth virus got to his phone. And recently, I have noticed that phone stores are starting to get laptops to re-flash phones in the event of such happenings... -Husam Kinawi, President, WirelessEdge Canada
Keep the debate going by using our comments here [1].
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/mobile-viruses-on-the-rise/2006-10-06