Spanish police have arrested a 28-year-old man on charges that he created variants of the CommWarrior and Cabir mobile phone viruses, according to published reports.
The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested in Valencia, AFP (Agence France Press) reported Saturday. He is accused of creating 20 new variants of the viruses.
Spanish police had named their operation "Leslie," because the virus author had written a note in his source code dedicating his malware to his fiance, Leslie, AFP reported.
CommWarrior and Cabir are variants of the same mobile phone virus, which affects phones based on the Symbian OS, such as the Series 60 devices built by Nokia.
The software has infected an estimated 115,000 phones but is not currently thought to be a particularly critical threat, said Ron O'Brien, a senior security analyst with Sophos PLC. "As a rule we have not seen a large number of viruses that specifically target mobile devices," he said.
O'Brien believes that the suspect is probably not the creator of Cabir. Three years ago a Brazilian man published the worm's source code to the Web, claiming that he was the author of the malware.
Cabir and CommWarrior spread via Bluetooth, and malicious code must first be downloaded by the victim in order to infect the phone. "It could be as simple as opening an instant message or opening an e-mail," O'Brien said.
Different variations of the virus can shut down the phone, wipe out an address book, or even send SMS messages to other phones, O'Brien said.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts
This white paper provides guidance on how to develop a strategic approach to managing and monitoring logs, a key function required for compliance with many regulatory mandates and a critical defense against security threats.
Download now! »
Learn about the processes and technologies that support security information management (SIM) operations, as well as the business case for SIM. The series examines different options for implementing SIM and gives you evaluation criteria for selecting the best option for your organization.
Download now! »
Learn the strategies, actions, and capabilities that Best-in-Class organizations employ and technologies they choose to obtain superior performance against various security performance metrics. This report provides guidelines for identifying which security solutions to consume as a MSS and defines best practices for choosing and managing MSSPs.
Download now! »
Recommend This
