The power of next-generation mobile is comparable to that of a laptop a few years ago: run complex applications, store a huge amount of data and, above all, connect to the Internet, it’s almost one billion worldwide dell studio 1745 battery, dell studio 1747 battery.
A figure that cyber-criminals look to greed, at least according to antivirus vendors, who have spent years warning loudly about the imminent appearance of malware for mobile systems. What for years was considered an urban legend is now a credible threat . But is it real? And if so, how can you protect yourself?
Infections Wireless: Bluetooth and MMS
When the middle of the last decade became popular smartphones, started talking about the same time mobile malware. At first I went from being mere proofs of concept, as the virus Caribbean (or Cabir), which infected Symbian phones, and spread via Bluetooth, their only actions were to show a message and spread.
Bluetooth is a technology that has been used by other malware . To avoid getting enough to reject the incoming file or not install the application, but that did not prevent mass infection in places with large crowds. Skuller virus appeared in 2004, was the first example of harmful malware, replaced the icons with skulls and delete files at random.
El virus Skull (imagen de Kaspersky)
Another classic route of infection are multimedia messaging (MMS). In 2010, the virus MMS Bomber affected millions of Symbian mobile phones in China. A similar case was the CommWarrior , which appeared in 2005 gateway nv-54 keyboard, gateway nv-78 keyboard, which invited users to run a game and spreads by exploiting the mobile phonebook.
What can a mobile virus, spread apart and delete files? According to experts at Kaspersky Lab , only the operating system puts a limit. In 2005 there was talk of remote control, sending spam and block memory cards, but now more frequently include data theft and costly SMS sending .
The threshold of 10% market share
A study of Marta C. González, a researcher at MIT, suggests that mobile viruses have not spread yet to a point of market share. They reached that conclusion after analyzing calling patterns and mobility of millions of users, simulating infection via Bluetooth and MMS.
Call graph starting from a single user up to four levels of contacts
What they found was that an epidemic of viruses via MMS, the most common route of infection, independent of range, it would be possible when a mobile operating system reached 9.5% market share . With 30%, an infection would be possible in just a few hours via MMS and about three days through Bluetooth.
Cuota de mercado de sistemas móviles en Q4 2010Market share of mobile OS in the last quarter of 2010 (source: Wikipedia )
Mobiles Android, iPhone and Blackberry have exceeded the threshold of 10% in 2010, while Symbian, despite having given way, remains above the 30% that, according to Gonzalez, would amount to an epidemic immediately. However, this has not happened, why?
Matter of time and resources
The emergence of mobile sony vaio vgn-ns keyboard, sony vaio vgn-aw keyboard viruses that are transmitted by MMS has been so slow that most operators have been able to block the most important threats. As for his actual code, there are many variants of a few original virus, and that their blockade facilitates birth. And then there are the application stores , which have provided safe havens for the discharge of mobile applications.
Using an application store prevents strain on the mobile malware
However, experts recommend not lowering our guard . Virus have already appeared for Android (as Soundminer , stealing personal data and sends them to a remote server) and iPhone (for example, 113 Prep Trojan , which affects only terminals with jailbreak ). As you detect vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications, this number will increase.
Keeping your phone safe
Before waiting for the malware appears suddenly, it is advisable to follow a few basic safety rules. We have compiled a list to keep your smartphone safe in most situations:
* Do not accept messages or files via Bluetooth by unknown
* If you do not use Bluetooth toshiba pa3465u-1brs battery, toshiba pa3734u-1brs battery, in fact, better than disable it entirely
* Do not install applications without checking its origin, especially if they are signed
* Where to jailbreak your iPhone, change the root password
* If you have an Android rooted , install Superuser to any application requesting permission
* Pages and download applications from trusted stores
* As a general rule, do not run unsigned applications
* Install a mobile antivirus for your platform
And you? Do you use antivirus software on your phone?
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