I need to know if cellphone viruses can harm my personal security or can render my cellphone useless like when I have it in my computer. What are the things I can do to prevent a cellphone virus from getting in my phone? Can cellphone viruses destroy a phone?
Yes, some viruses can harm your personal security and can render your phone useless. Some popular viruses are Cabir (A, B, C, D, E, Dropper), Skull (A,B), Q.Dial, Duts, CommWarrior.
Cabir is the earliest mobile virus, running at Symbian operated phones. To know that you are infected with this, a word "Caribe" shall appear on your phone every time you turn it on and send bluetooth signalled messages to others. It is important not to open this file. Cabir A sends a Caribe-VZ/29a.sis file through bluetooth that can infect your phone when you opened and installed it.. Cabir C on the other hand displays the worm as "Mytiti"; Cabir D displays the worm as [YUAN]; Cabir E displays as Ni&Ai. The most deceptive is Cabir Dropper as it displays "Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional.sis" and when opened, shall install Cabir A, B, C, and D. It can also make your application icons go blank. Then autostart components shall be installed, but these are fake ones and contains nothing.
Skull virus can make your phone useless. Skull A, named as "Tee-222" when opened shall replace all your icons with a skull and cross bones and make all these icons useless and unable to open. Aside from turning on or off your phone and answering and making calls, it cannot do any other thing. The Skull B, also replaces all applications with its files and make it useless PLUS it also drops a Cabir.B that when once activated can be sent to other phone via Bluetooth. If you have Skull B, DO NOT restart your phone.
Q.Dial does not spread itself though it can damage the amount of credit you have in your phone. Q.Dial came from the game "Mosquito", that when downloaded through internet or sent via other friends, then messages about its premium rate shall be received and you are charged per message.
Duts affect Windows operated OS on mobile and displays itself as “WinCE4.Dust by Ratter/29A” and asks the question "Dear User, am I allowed to spread?" Virus shall then be opened once you chose "Yes".
CommWarrior is said to be the most effective as it infects in both MMS and Bluetooth. It sends out a file at a random name and once you open it can infect others through Bluetooth and MMS.
If this has happened to you, then you can have it removed at a cellphone repairing center.
To protect your phone, do not turn your Bluetooth into Discoverable unless you intend to have a peer to peer sharing network, and make sure that you know what file is sent to you, what kind of file and who sent it. Also, be careful of what you download through internet. There are also anti viruses that is readily available such as Kapersky, McAfee, and F-Secure.
Hope this helps!
Hello Afred,
Sure cell phone viruses can cause a lot of damage to you phone and even render the data and applications that you have on the phone useless, and therefore it is advisable to ensure that your phone is protected always. To protect your phone from malicious virus attacks, you will need to do the following:
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Carl
