ITV says that there’s a new virus in town, one that spreads across Symbian operating systems via Bluetooth, perhaps leveraging the approach discovered a few weeks ago of hacking phone address books. So far (unlike my thinking in July 2003) it doesn’t send texts to everyone in your address book, but who knows how long that will take? Apparently this one’s main threat is that it could drain your battery by keeping bluetooth on (what were the writers thinking?). Sadly, most of the news feeds fail to mention that you have to install the software on your mobile phone first (which means going to fetch a SIS file, having your mobile connected to your PC, saying yes to the install etc). The Register nailed that point, as you’d expect, along with the fact that the virus was actually mailed to someone with a “look what we’ve done” statement, acknowledging it as a proof of concept. Still, this won’t be the last and the next ones will be worse I’m sure.
But, here’s a more interesting mobile phone virus story in honour of today being Bloomsday.
