Unlike the virus attacks on personal computers that spread like wild fire, the mobile space is a different land scape that is hard to penetrate by the virus programme writers. Industry players identify the reason as lack of uniformity in operating system (OS) and architecture in writing and unleashing mobile specific virus programmes. ?With 90% of PCs running on MS OS, it is very easy for virus code writers to hatch and replicate virus across the PCs through Internet,? said Robert Raja, CEO, Odyssey Technologies.
The case is different with mobile phones where different gadget manufacturers opt for different OSes like Symbian, Android and Windows mobile. Virus code writers can not reach volume and scale in writing codes for the respective mobile OSes in the current scenario,? he said. Welcoming the diversity of standards in mobile computing as it promotes security and innovation, he added: ?This diversity of standards is what keeping the hackers and virus code writers at bay in mobile computing space.?
Ram Swaroop, president, Cyber Security Works, said pure mobile virus attacks are sophisticated in nature and in low-end phone market like India where virus attacks emanate mostly from PC to mobile connectivity. ?The source of infection in a rapidly growing mobile market like India could be the transmitting of viruses from PCs to mobile when the devices are connected for downloading files like music, videos, games and pictures. The maximum damage viruses can do is the crashing of OS rendering it impossible to retrieve address book, messages and user downloads. This will be the maximum damage for around 95% of phone users in the country. Only 5% of high-end phone users browse Internet and check mails on their mobiles. The mobile on-line security could become a hot issue following the unfolding of 3G and mobile banking services in a big way?, he added.
?PC to mobile? transmitting viruses could be much lethal to high-end mobile phones in the country that enables high speed Internet surfing and other high bandwidth applications,? said Sanjay Katkar, technical director, Quick Heal. While elaborating on what mobile-infecting viruses could do to the devices, Katkar said viruses could alter the OS of the phones like redirecting the calls over a different carrier or a service provider that can lead to hefty phone bills, can attach an image file to every Multimedia messaging service sent which can again lead to increase in phone bill, a new virus category called snoopware that could pass on keypad clicks to decrypt vital user information, can spread ?pranking for profit? virus programmes that are aimed at tapping the financial sensitive information of the phone users etc.