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Watch Out, Mobile Phone Viruses Are On the LooseNairobi, Nov 15, 2010 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Mobile phones, the hallmark of modern technology in Africa has been improving both in coverage and in sophistication. E-commerce has bought into mobile technology in a big way. Cyber thieves have sniffed the windfall and are wagging their tails. Many financial and business deals are now transacted by phones. Customers receive financial information in the form of text messages from their banks and are expected to give approval for certain services to go through. This text, however, could be carrying serious financial consequences should it fall in the wrong hands. That is why users of mobile phones, phone companies and service providers should not get their eyes off the security buttons. Cyber criminals are burning the midnight oil laying strategies to dismantle phone security and tap onto this boon. Criminals are cunningly crafting spyware or programmes that stealthily steal your personal information from your phone. They share their expertise and resources to circumvent safety protections of electronic era to make a profit or enjoy their illegal activities. Depending on its strength, spyware could open doors for identity theft, digital forgery, online fraud, data theft or even distributed denial-of-service attacks that could make a cell phone network disabled for a period of time. Just like computer viruses, they could completely immobilise a phone, delete the data on it, turn icons into skulls, or force the device to send messages sporadically to numbers on the address book. That could spell doom to mobile money accounts and shut down communication or seriously compromise it. It could mean that some people could lose or take time to recover their money as the systems power up and reconcile transactions. The losses in time, money and opportunity cost could be ominous. Cell-phone threats get into your phone primarily through three ways; Internet downloads, Bluetooth wireless connections, and multimedia messaging service (MMS). Phone and computer users are always advised to verify the authenticity of downloads to make sure they are from trusted sources. Many protections are built into phones, such as allowing users to set a strong, several-digit PIN code for Bluetooth devices so that access is harder to crack. Most digital phones have encryption capabilities, which reduce the chance of someone latching onto a conversation. Banks and phone service providers require customers to download secure software that enables them to transfer money between accounts or top up prepay phones. Mobile phone anti-virus software is also becoming more available, which is used for various device platforms. But phone users continue to jail break their phones or indiscriminately install any application some of which could hold perilous software not withstanding the same phone carry the Zap, M-pesa or Orange money accounts. What they probably don't know is that using compromised phones or unlocking legal phones makes them vulnerable to virus attacks. You are probably wondering whether your phone is already housing a virus. A phone with a virus will activate its Bluetooth automatically, which makes the cell phone send virus-laden files to other phones whose Bluetooth is on. It will also send MMS randomly to numbers on its address book. If this is not detected and stopped, it will drain your airtime as soon as you load and you may accuse your service provider of short-changing you. You will also discover that if previously your battery could last two to three days when not in use, it now takes only a fraction of the time and dies off even when you have made a call or 'smsed'. Sam Wambugu is a monitoring and evaluation specialist. |