Dial H for Hacker

8216;8216;The motivation is to say cell phones aren8217;t as secure as you think.8217;8217; Mobile phones are a tempting target because they have become so much a part of everyday life. In addition, consumers are buying 8216;8216;smart phones8217;8217; with Internet connections that provide an easier pathway for cell-phone infections.

Few phones now in use come equipped with anti-virus protection, although some companies are starting to install it. Most cell phone users aren8217;t on guard for viral infections like those that periodically bring down computers worldwide, and at this point there is little they can do to protect themselves.

8216;8216;The impact is potentially larger on the phone because we8217;re not savvy about that,8217;8217; said Victor Kouznetsov, senior vice president of mobile solutions at McAfee, a security software firm. 8216;8216;Also, the profile of a mobile society is a cross-section of society who are potentially less technically savvy than computer users.8217;8217;

Skulls is one of five cell phone viruses identified this year, according to security experts and analysts. The scale of such attacks is hard to quantify because the federally funded CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, which monitors viruses and worms on the Internet, does not separately tally reports of cell-phone viruses. But there are anecdotal reports.

For instance, in Japan, cell phones have frequently been 8216;8216;spammed8217;8217; with junk messages, some of which redirect phones to websites that cause the phones to crash. Most basic phones can send and receive text messages, which makes them vulnerable to some attacks.

And new ways of using cell phones encourage the spread of viruses. For instance, cell phones can transfer infections when users participate in a dating service that allows them to contact strangers in the same room via text messages or play online games.

The potential for trouble increases with smart phones. Like a computer, the newer phones can run e-mail programs and download PowerPoint slides, games and other applications that can come with viruses attached. Today these advanced phones make up 2 percent of cell phones in the United States, according the Yankee Group research firm. But Yankee Group expects those numbers to increase to 17 percent by 2008. Furthermore existing anti-virus software for computers hasn8217;t been programmed for cell phones.

8216;8216;By 2006, cell phone viruses will be what viruses are on the Internet in 2004,8217;8217; because cell phones are in many ways becoming more like miniature PCs, said John Pescatore, an analyst with Gartner, a technology research firm.

8216;8216;First it will be a nuisance. The next phase will be crime, like theft or theft of service, and then after that we8217;ll start seeing different types of attacks8217;8217; that bring down networks, he said. Cell phones use a number of different operating systems, meaning hackers must design separate programs to disable each one. That makes it harder to design a mass attack.

8216;8216;It8217;s never going to be as uniform a landscape for hackers,8217;8217; so it8217;s not clear how broad an attack might be, said John Jackson, an analyst with the Yankee Group.

Experts have tried to anticipate how big a problem viruses might be by simulating attacks on cell phones in software labs. They have found e-mail viruses can multiply on their own by sending messages through a cell phone8217;s address book. Viruses can allow hackers into a phone to access passwords or corporate data stored on the device. And they can be used to manipulate the phone to make calls or send messages at the phone owner8217;s expense.

In June, a hacker gang based in Europe that calls itself 8216;8216;29A8217;8217; released a virus called Cabir. It spread through Bluetooth, a feature on some phones normally used to synchronize phones and computers. It sends wireless signals up to 30 feet, so calendar and contact information can be updated without hooking devices together with a wire. But Cabir hijacked that function, sending Bluetooth phones on a search-and-destroy mission to infect other Bluetooth phones. 8212;LAT-WP