Mobile Phones

The expanded functionality of all mobile devices has also seemed to make them susceptible to all forms of attacks. Smart phones, which are cell phones that have some of the functionality of PDAs, can also be vulnerable to viruses. In June of 2000, Timofonica, a variant of the LoveLetter virus, spammed thousands of mobile phone owners in Spain. The virus routed mails through an Internet-to-cellular gateway. Virus hunters found themselves confronted with what might have been the first attempt to infect mobile phones. Somebody calling himself Timofonica—timo is Spanish for prank—sent a Short Messaging Service (SMS) message to a small number of subscribers to Spanish giant Telefonica's mobile phone network telling them that the company ...

Get Privacy Defended: Protecting Yourself Online now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.