Mobile virus turns up in US
Spencer Swartz in San Francisco
FEBRUARY 21, 2005
THE world's first mobile phone virus "in the wild" has spread to the United States from its birthplace in the Philippines.
The virus, known as Cabir, has spread slowly into 12 countries and marks the beginning of the mobile phone virus era.
The biggest impact of the relatively innocuous virus, found in about 15 variations so far, is draining mobile phone batteries, director of Finnish anti-virus research company F-Secure Mikko Hypponen said.
Mr Hypponen said Cabir was found in a technology gadgets store in Santa Monica, California, when a passing techie spotted a telltale sign on the screen of a phone in the store.
"It's interesting (the Cabir variant) has now been found in the United States, but it's not the end of the world," Mr Hypponen said.
The store owner's phone had also been infected, Hypponen said. Both devices were made by Nokia.
Mr Hypponen said it was likely other devices in the area were also infected by Cabir, although there was no confirmation of that.
Unlike computer viruses that spread quickly around the world via the internet, Cabir spreads slowly because it travels only over short distances through the Bluetooth wireless protocol. It also requires a user to restart the phone after it has been exposed for the virus to take hold.
In cases where Cabir spread to different countries, an infected phone has typically been carried by the user to another country.
Cabir has been found in countries ranging from China to the United Kingdom.
In November, another virus known as "Skulls" was sent to security firms, not to consumers, as a so-called "proof of concept" to alert them of the virus writer's capability. Reuters
