Mobile phone vulnerabilities: a new generation of malware

There has recently been concern about potential tlireats rind security issrres of ntobile phone techno1ogie.s. Some unalysts argue that mobile phones are iwherable to the sanie sort qf security risks as PCs. Vinrses. Trojans. arid ~vorms have been created and rurgeted ut mobile phone risen but so .far have been harmless. Recent inedia reports on activities srrc/t u s ‘bluejacking ’ and ‘hlr iesna~ng ’ have highlighted tbe attacks Bltietooth enubled devices are vrrbierable to. This paper evultiares the possibility that mobile phnries are soon to be threatened by the nine sort of maliciotrs activities that PC.s have to defend against on a daily 17u.si.s. It identifies the types of computer threats and recognises tlie new forms of attack aimed specifically toward mobile phones. It also denionstrates the ease with which cer/ahi 9pe.s of malware can be impkmentul on a mobile device.’ system. However, analysts have argued that the capability of the current mobile phones makes it impossible for a virus to infect such devices [I] . Mobile viruses have yet to overcome the problem of cross-platform contamination, currently limited to being able to only infect mobile phones running a similar operating system thus limiting their ability to spread. However, as mobile phones become more intelligent and powerful, the risk of a mobile virus infecting mobile phones increases [ 2 ] . The adoption of standard technologies in mobile networks and the ability to constantly connect to the Internet, offer many functionalities and services to users such as sending and downloading tiles with attachments, some of which may be infectable. It is anticipated that by 2005 mobile networks will be hit by a malicious program costing approximately $471 million for every five million users affected 131. _ _ ~~ ~~~~~ The discovery of security flaws in Bluetooth enabled devices suggests the growing concern over the vulnerability of mobile phones. Blueiackinx and bluesnarfing are some of the Index Terms Mobile Malware’ Worms. new forms of hacking. Bluejacking is a technique of sending