Mobile Viruses: If Not Now, Soon
Another year, another would-be mobile-virus threat. On Jan. 3, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) said its popular handhelds could fall victim to virus attacks due to a software flaw in the company's BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which acts as a link between the devices and corporate applications. Open the wrong file, and wham! Forget about viewing other attachments. Luckily for users of the addictive BlackBerry wireless e-mail service, RIM caught the vulnerability early and came up with a fix, which will become available with the next iteration of its enterprise server. RIM says it doesn't know of any customers who were affected by malware exploiting the flaw. Posted on RIM's Web site is a list of steps subscribers can take to safeguard devices from attacks until the new release.
Crisis averted. Again. For years, McAfee (MFE), Symantec (SYMC), and F-Secure -- all vendors of software aimed at combating mobile threats -- have been predicting a boom in viruses that so far has failed to materialize.
