Virus Creators Hit Smart Phones

Whilst viruses have been commonplace on PCs for as long as I can remember, the thought that you could catch one on your mobile phone is not something that most people would not consider. But that’s exactly what has started happening in the last few days. With reports that smart phones are now the target of criminal gangs who are creating viruses to extract personal data or to make the phone send out premium rate text messages that profit the gangs, people now need to apply the same level of security and awareness to their mobile as they do to their PC.

The BBC reports on a case with a Russian media player application that was released on the android market. The app essentially stole money from users by sending out premium rate text messages after the app gained access to that area of the phones operating system.

The mobile research manager for Kaspersky Lab, Denis Maslennikov, stated, “The success of the Android platform in the marketplace has triggered increased interest from virus writers.” The company intends to release a new mobile security application to respond to these threats which should be out early 2011. In the meantime advice is to be careful about what you install and monitor what settings each application has access to. If you are at all dubious about an application uninstall it immediately.

This news is almost expected but is another hurdle developers are going to face when creating apps for genuine companies and will likely mean reduced uptake rates on any smaller applications in the coming months.