Viruses & Malware

Viruses and hacking on mobile phones are still rare but attacks are a looming danger as increasing numbers of people access the Internet and download files with their handsets, experts say.

A survey released this week at the industry's Mobile World Congress showed that only 2.1 percent of people had been struck by a virus themselves and only 11.6 percent knew someone who had been affected by one.

The poll by IT security specialist McAfee, based on 2,000 people in Britain, the United States and Japan, showed that 86.3 percent had had no experience of mobile phone viruses.

Hoax Valentine's messages that aim to infect your PC and turn it into a bot are circulating already.

Security firms are warning that cybercriminals are attempting to infect the PCs of innocent surfers by convincing them that they have a secret admirer.

Anyone who opens the email is putting themselves at risk of losing their own personal information, as well as allowing hackers to remotely control the PC for their own ends.

The emails have subject lines such as "Love Rose", "Rockin' Valentine" and "Just You" and contain a file called valentine.exe.

China's anti-virus authorities on Sunday warned computer users to guard against Valentine's Day computer viruses.

Valentine's Day computer viruses, especially "Vbs_Valentin.A", spread chiefly through e-mails or online chat systems, such as MSN and QQ, warned experts from Tianjin-based China National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center.

Other viruses like "Worm-blebla.B" and "VBS-ILoveyou" will also assault PC computers if users open e-mails or attachments disguised with Valentine blessings for February 14.

Los Angeles-based Panda Security announced on Friday that it has detected two new computerworms, Nuwar.OL and Valentin.E, that use the topic of Valentine's Day to spread.

"Year after year, we see the appearance of several malware strains that use Valentine's Day as bait to attract users," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. "This indicates that cyber-crooks are still reaping the benefits of this technique,and many people still fall into the trap."

Los Angeles-based Panda Security announced on Friday that it has detected two new computer worms, Nuwar.OL and Valentin.E, that use the topic of Valentine's Day to spread.

"Year after year, we see the appearance of several malware strains that use Valentine's Day as bait to attract users," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. "This indicates that cyber-crooks are still reaping the benefits of this technique, and many people still fall into the trap."

Trend Micro is reporting that within hours of the news that popular actor Heath Ledger had been found dead in his New York apartment, several malware sites appeared at the top of search listings for the words “heath” and “ledger”. Users visiting these sites are redirected to another site, which prompts them to download an ActiveX “update”. The update is fake and instead begins a series of malware downloads.

Security vendor Fortinet has uncovered a malicious SymbianOS Worm that is actively spreading on mobile phone networks.

Fortinet's threat response team warned on Monday that the worm, identified as SymbOS/Beselo.A!worm, is able to run on several Symbian S60 enabled devices. These include handsets such as Nokia 6600, 6630, 6680, 7610, N70 and N72 handsets.

Security experts have warned users to focus on securing their whole online lifestyle in 2008.

Care should be taken in all aspects of online services, including bill payments, shopping and stock trading, and not just in the use of social networking and gaming sites.

"Social engineering will still be the preferred method to lure people into infecting their computer or giving away password information, but the approaches will become much more sophisticated," said Diego d'Ambra, chief technology officer at SoftScan.

Is it a good idea to run anti-virus software? It may seem like an answer that would require an overwhelming "YES," but as virus attacks are decreasing, some users are uninstalling their old anti-virus software. For those who have decided to digitally "go commando," here are a few tips.

Looking for love in the Internet may be a good idea, just don’t get bitten by any malicious computer bug by opening any love related e-mails sent to you by an anonymous lover.

Sophos is warning users of a widespread e-mail posing as a message of love in an attempt to install malicious codes to your computer. The company says that the people behind the Dorf Trojan has deliberately spammed out a romantic e-mail campaign, luring unsuspecting computer users to dangerous websites.