New Symbian Virus Prevents You From Placing Calls

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3968' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3968</a><br /><br /></div>It all started 7 months ago with <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5743">Cabir</a>, and while that virus was relatively calm, todays virus is much more harmful. The virus still travels using the same method of fooling the user into running it, but once it's executed this latest version will go as far as preventing you from making calls. This is still just a Symbian problem, but that doesn't mean Windows Mobile phones are any safer. As the number of Windows Mobile devices grows, so does the risk.

[Jerry Raia]

No question MS phones are next. Like always though, if you don't open the attachment, you are probably safe.

[vincenzosi]

Shocking that in the year 2005 after years of having it beat into peoples' heads, they still insist on opening attachments they weren't expecting...

I guess it's no different than the tools that keep forking over banking details to help a deposed Nigerian prince.

[Ed Hansberry]

Shocking that in the year 2005 after years of having it beat into peoples' heads, they still insist on opening attachments they weren't expecting...
A guy I work with got irritated at me because our AV scanner on the server removed an attachment he thought was from his boss. I don't even know if it was infected - we remove .COM files regardless. I told him no one should be sending .COM files and it looked like a spoofed FROM anyway. He was still mad because he thought it was from his boss. :roll: talking to some adults about computers and security is like trying to talk to a 3 year old about logic. It doesn't surprise me in the weast people open unexpected attachments. :| It frustrates me though.

[vincenzosi]

We accept commission invoices from our dealers through email. This one guy in our commission department insists on opening every single attachment regardless of who it's from and where it's from. He's killed his computer three times already.

Anyway, seeing as people just weren't smart enough, we installed SAV 9.0 which just strips out virus laiden attachments. He can't kill our network now.

But you can bet he still opens those attachments whenever he gets 'em and SAV doesn't catch them.

You're right... You can talk to kids more openly about logic than adults.

[Jerry Raia]

This all begs the question of where are the changes to the email system so that spoofing, etc. can't be done??

[vincenzosi]

Sitting on someone's desk at Microsoft, with a different proposal on a desk at AOL, one at Yahoo, one at Earthlink, and so on.

Everyone wants to be the standard, and refuses to work actively on one. AOL doesn't want to adopt Microsoft's standard, and so on. At this rate, nothing will ever change.

[Jerry Raia]

All of those companies seem to be great a suing each other over trivial or stupid junk. If they would put all that energy into just fixing this problem they wouldnt have to put out patches and fixes every two weeks.

Now thanks to these companies inertia, we will have the dorks creations IN our handsets.

[Mike Temporale]

Sitting on someone's desk at Microsoft, with a different proposal on a desk at AOL, one at Yahoo, one at Earthlink, and so on.

Everyone wants to be the standard, and refuses to work actively on one. AOL doesn't want to adopt Microsoft's standard, and so on. At this rate, nothing will ever change.

Although this is true to a certain extent, most of the major players are implementing SPF as a means to stop the spoofing of emails. I think we'll see the number of spoofed emails fall dramatically this year thanks to SPF.

[vincenzosi]

It can only get better, right?

(He says as he remembers saying the same thing last year)

[Mike Temporale]

I don't know if your familiar with SPF or not, but it's actually a pretty good solution. Instead of being hung up on checking the email address, it checks that the email was sent from a "approved" server. All the major Email servers now have the ability to do SPF, so it's just a matter of people learning about it, and setting it up. With any luck it will take off and make an impact.

But I do agree with you, there has been other hopefuls that never seem to do anything. I hope this one is different. :)