We are already accustoming with the idea that no digital device can escape the wrath of viruses and worms; the only devices that have not been infected yet are the digital cameras.
Smartphones are the most targeted category and because of this new battle field, specialists expect an increase of the security solution market.
A recent study carried out by Visiongain announces that the value of antivirus solutions distributed to users will surpass 723 million USD in 2004 and by 2007 12.6
billion USD.
After Cabir and "Metal Gear Solid", more viruses for classical cell phones and smartphones have started to appear. Lasco.A followed shortly after, it victims being the terminals using the Symbian system. The originality of this virus resides in using two spreading techniques. The first allows the virus to transmit itself as an attachment of an ordinary application, and once the attachment is ran, Lasco is also triggered.
After that, the virus starts picking on other smartphone applications. The virus can be transmitted from one phone to another, but only if an infected phone sends an application to a similar phone.
Similar to Cabir, Lasco.A tries to transmit itself through Bluetooth and other wireless solutions. Still, the victim has to accept a connection with unknown source and to launch the received file in order for the infection to succeed.
The diversity of the spreading methods brings new arguments for familiarizing users as quickly as possible with security measures. Since the appearance of CommWarrior, the viruses have MMS spreading capability. Until then, viruses were only spreading through Bluetooth which limited their range to 10 meters. The MMS messaging system is not limited, and as consequence, the mass spreading is possible.
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