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Symbian "virus" hype overblown

For what it's worth, the hype about "discovery" of Symbian "viruses" is generally just that, hype.

With any environment where you speak directly to the OS, including all PC platforms, it is possible (in fact easy) to code apps that pretend to be other apps and do malicious things.

But when people think of viruses, trojans, etc., they usually think of the PC/Windows world where applications can be installed unwittingly, as with scripting languages in email attachments, or unknowingly, like spyware which downloads components transparently over the Internet. And they think of exponential growth quickly affecting thousands of users.

This is not the case at all with these Symbian "viruses." There are applications and you would install them only by actively retrieving them, or if you allow automatic Bluetooth upload from unrecognized devices. THEN you would go through a series of dialogs asking for confirmation (and generally warning about the supplier being unknown etc.). Anyone who does all that without knowing the source deserves to get hosed.

I've yet to see reports of any widespread suffering from these viruses, just a handful of anecdotal or experimental cases, often reported by anti-virus companies with something to gain. When thousands (or even hundreds) of users run into problems I'll believe there is something to worry about.

Posted by: louiethenose   Posted on: 01/06/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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