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OT-cell phone due for an antivirus shot? from CNET


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http://news.com.com/Is+your+cell+phone+due+for+an+antivirus+shot/2100-7349_3-6042745.html


Is your cell phone due for an antivirus shot?
By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: February 24, 2006, 4:00 AM PST
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You can put videos, games, pictures and music on your cell phone. Is antivirus software next?



But makers of security software are eager to get their products onto handsets, a huge potential market. About 812 million mobile terminals--such as cell phones and smart phones--were sold in 2005, according to market researcher Gartner. That compares with an estimated 219 million PCs in the same period. The market research firm expects annual mobile device shipments to exceed 1 billion units for the first time in 2008.

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Cell phone operators have typically focused on their network, rather than phones, as the place to try to thwart mobile virus threats. In moves invisible to users, they scan messages moving from one device to another to filter out malicious programs. Verizon Wireless, which has 51.3 million customers, and T-Mobile USA, which claims 20 million customers, both have scanners in place, representatives said.


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Gartner analysts have backed the scanning approach, saying that installing antivirus software on cell phones would be a mistake. On the PC, antivirus tools became largely ineffective and were reduced to removal tools when e-mail surpassed floppies as the dominant transmission mechanism for viruses, they wrote in a research note last June.
"The mobile world should not repeat the mistakes of the PC world. Malware protection services should be built into the network first, and device-side protection should be the last resort," analysts John Pescatore and John Girard wrote.

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Phones will change to address this problem, Hypponen said. Symbian, maker of the namesake mobile phone operating system, and handset makers are altering their software, he said. Other changes that have been proposed to secure phones include new, hardware-based security standards for the devices.

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Threats to mobile devices are expected to rise as more smart phones are sold. In the third quarter of 2005, worldwide shipments of smart phones totaled 12.6 million units, up 210 percent year over year, according to Gartner. As a proportion of all mobile shipments, smart phone shipments increased to 6.1 percent from 2.4 percent, Gartner said.

For a widespread worm or virus attack, several conditions must be met, Gartner analysts Girard and Pescatore. Smart phones have to be widely adopted, wireless messaging needs to be ubiquitous and one operating system should be dominant, the analysts said. For antivirus makers and cellular network operators grappling over what approach to take to protect customers, time might be running out.

"Gartner believes these factors will converge by the end of 2007," Girard and Pescatore wrote.


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