Virusability of modern mobile environments

Vesselin Bontchev FRISK

  download slides (PDF)

The vast majority of currently existing malware for mobile devices (PDAs, smart phones, etc.) is for mobile phones running the Symbian S60 R2 operating system - with just some proof-of-concept malicious programs existing for the J2ME, PalmOS and Windows Mobile 2003 environments. The paper examines the security features introduced in the newer versions of the mobile operating systems - Symbian R3, Windows Mobile 6.0, J2ME - and explains why they are much less vulnerable to self-propagating code. While we stop short of claiming that these environments are virus-proof, we maintain that viruses are unlikely to become a huge problem for them.

Poll

Who in your company is responsible for installing software patches?
System administrators
End users
I don't know

Leave a comment
Jobs Recruit Sidebar

VB100 certification

VB100 The final VB100 of the year sees a double whammy of potential pitfalls for our comparative participants - the Vista operating system, which still seems shiny and new as well as a little scary (to both developers and users), as well as the x64 architecture, whose ostensible compatibility with standard 32-bit software belies oddities and intricacies that developers ignore at their peril. The announcement of the test brought a few surprises, as several regulars opted to skip this one, but the majority of veteran competitors took part as usual, along with several newer faces, many of whom look set to join the ranks of our regulars.
See full results.
Virus Bulletin currently has 148,287 registered users.