Maximum Wireless Security

Handset Viruses

Older handsets were relatively immune from airborne viruses because they lacked functionality. However, Internet-enabled smart phones are facile hosts for infection. For example, the 911 virus flooded Tokyo’s emergency response phone system using an SMS (short message system) message. The message, which hit more than 100,000 mobile phones, invited recipients to visit a Web page. Unfortunately, when the users attempted to visit the Web site, they activated a script that caused the phones to call 110, Tokyo’s equivalent of the United States’ 911 emergency number. Thus, the virus could have indirectly resulted in deaths by denying emergency services.

A potential vulnerability of SMS is that it allows a handset to receive or submit ...