Internet security firm F-Secure has issued a warning that Cabir is making swift progress over Bluetooth-enabled devices and has so far been spotted in countries like Russia, China, Finland, the Netherlands and the U.S., where Bluetooth technology has proven popular in recent years as a short-range radio technology that streamlines connectivity between computers and Internet-enabled devices.
By definition, smartphones are able to function like small PCs and provide email and Internet access. In the beginning of 2005, market demand for these devices increased by 137 percent.
Cabir was first discovered in June as one of the first few dozen virus threats so far known to affect the more than 1 billion cellphones and mobile devices in use worldwide.
According to F-Secure, the virus spreads by asking a mobile user if they want to connect to a nearby phone by accepting a downloadable file. From that point, the virus continues to spread by seeking out compatible phones. Once a phone is infected, the side effects are fairly mild compared to some of the fiercer Internet virus seen in recent months, according to F-Secure. Symptoms include shorter battery life span because the phone is so busy trying to locate other Bluetooth-enabled phones and devices.
And while virus experts at F-Secure and other security firms are puzzled by cellphone users' willingness to accept strange files onto their devices, Cabir's ability to travel throughout the world is due largely to the transience of mobile devices.
In early April, security analysts determined that Cabir had been generated from the same source code as the Mabir.A virus, and could therefore be the creation of the same writer.
Cabir and Mabir.A both target Symbian operating systems, although Mabir spreads through MMS by intercepting all SMS and MMS messages and then re-sending the initial message as though it were a reply; but, in fact, the message is infected with the virus. Mabir.A also is spread through Bluetooth.
A recent survey by security company Symantec determined that more than 73 percent of smartphone users are aware of viruses that can attack their devices and compromise personal data, and yet they choose to do nothing.
Market watchers are predicting that as the number of smartphone users increase, attacks by viruses and trojans will become as common as they are for PC users.
Matt Ekram, a manager for Symantec, said that the popularity of smartphones "will open up a lot of opportunity for hackers and virus writers to do something malicious, and we still need to educate the public more effectively as to what they should do to protect their devices."
And while no security measures are yet underway to protect smartphone users, more damaging virus attacks than Cabir are considered inevitable by many experts.
"The kinds of applications that are most popularly used will help dictate how much security you need on the smartphone," Ekram continued. "We were surprised by the sheer number of people already doing transactions, disclosing confidential information or using online banking, and you can guess that is where the future attacks will be aimed."
