Cellphone viruses pose huge threat to South Africa

While cellphone viruses are in their infancy in South Africa, information technology experts predict a growing problem that could cost the country's 30 million cellphone users billions of rands in anti-virus software, local daily The Mercury said on Wednesday.

Loet de Swart, director of Durban-based mobile application developer Always Active Technologies, said cellular-based viruses were a "very small problem" at present, but the fact that some of the world's biggest anti-virus software developers had already invested in creating programs to fight cellular viruses signaled trouble ahead.

De Swart said that cellphone viruses were spread mostly via Bluetooth (wireless) technology, and affected mostly newer model handsets with advanced operating systems that allowed the running of email and Internet browsers. Cellphone viruses are spread via the internet, email and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).