Protect | Overview
Cabir, the world's first wireless worm was detected in June 2004 by Finnish security company F-Secure and they
reported that the Cabir worm could only reach mobile phones that supported Bluetooth, had it turned on and were
in discoverable mode. As with the emerging rise of the internet in the 1980s certain individuals were taking
advantage of this nascent technology to write malicious code.
In May 2007 the first Trojan SMS virus (SMS.Symb.OS.Viver), designed for Smartphones running Series 60 OS was detected
by Russian antivirus maker Kaspersky Labs. After installation on Smartphones running Series 60 OS, Viver started sending
SMS messages to premium SMS numbers, thus accruing charges to the infected mobile user’s account and generating income for
the virus author.
While quite a few similar viruses were spotted for all JAVA running mobile phones, Viver was the first to be specifically
designed for S60 based Smartphones. Despite the security conscious networks today's Smartphones viruses have shown that it
is possible to create malicious code that generate false billing which in turn will lead to decline in revenues due to
customer churn.
Protection against harmful content is required on every Smartphone on every network as the operator communities open up their
respective networks to third parties that are tasked with delivering rich content to the user communities. It is this inevitable
push towards richer content to disparate communities that are always connected that will test the heretofore secure walled gardens
of the mobile operator community.
Viruses and malicious code aside the proliferation of mobile devices also calls for individual subscribers or their family to be
afforded the ability to protect themselves from unwanted and intrusive messages. Mobile operators that can offer their subscriber
base the ability to establish blacklists and keyword removal will garner customer support and retention.
Mobile operators have always championed their secure networks but in the move towards richer content it is essential to place Protect
from Openmind Networks in the network. Protect filters out a range of undesirable messages that seek to attack or defraud subscribers
or network infrastructure. Only then can you guarantee network security.