Boffins battle to prevent mobile malware meltdown!

The recent appearance of the first ever iPhone worm (which plastered pictures of 80s pop singer Rick Astley on users' screens) underlines how serious the threat could be.

'Since mobile phones typically lack security features found on desktop computers, such as antivirus software, we need to accept that the mobile devices will ultimately be successfully attacked,' said Jonathon Giffin, assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science. 'Therefore our research focus is to develop effective attack recovery strategies.'

Griffin and Patrick Traynor, another professor at Georgia Tech, based in Atlanta, are using a grant, awarded to them by the US National Science Foundation, which recognised that if something isn't done soon, the mobile phone will become the next major target for malware writers

Mobile malware hell?

Especially worrying is the fact that unlike most PCs, phones can provide a direct source of recurring revenues to criminals, because they can run up huge phone bills if secretly, and maliciously, they are redirected to premium rate numbers operated by the criminals.

Malware on smartphones could also be used to listen in to private conversations, steal personal or commercial data, and destroy important information held on a phone. Criminals will inevitably be drawn to profusion of passwords that can provide access to everything from online bank accounts to email.

Griffin and Traynor said that they will initially focus on how networks can detect malware, which typically produces a spike in traffic as it replicates itself on infected devices and then transmits high volumes of data.

'While a single user might realize that a phone is behaving differently, that person probably won’t know why. But a cell phone provider may see a thousand devices behaving in the same way and have the ability to do something about it,' said Traynor.