Disqus
Any of you working in the Mobile Industry for the last 3-4 years may well have noticed an upsurge in the number of (usually uninformed) people talking about how viruses were coming to attack the world of Mobile. With the advent of Bluetooth, people were going to have their devices infected without knowing, and they (the innocent people) wouldn’t be able to function without their phone working! Oh woe!
Well it never really happened did it – at least not in the way it was predicted. A few people came up with about 3 different Series60 viruses, which did some damage, and then a load of script kiddies copied the files and made about 300 versions – but even having said that, most were based on the same simple code.
Other than that, there were not really tons of handsets getting nailed by viruses – even though the Mobile virus solution companies would have you believe there were! But why did the mobile threat never really materialise? Well here are some suggestions:
- Lots of operating systems – there are loads of ‘em in Mobile. And most of them are quite limited (see next point)
- Java (which is on most devices) was locked down – you could get a J2ME file on to a device, but you couldn’t get it to do much due to the way the environment is in a sandbox
- Savvy users – many users could spot a virus file
- What’s the point – if you motivated by mischief, you could cause some disruption for example, but if you were in it for the money, the motivation was that much harder to find
On a parallel track in the last few years though, Internet malware, viruses, phishing, and other scams have sky-rocketed in volume, and complexity – from keyboard loggers, to rootkits, to proper system-killing files, the Internet is way less safe than it was previously – and the problem is getting worse.
I’ll save from guessing the reasons why exactly the InterWeb has become the tool of choice for breaking people’s most valuable/used piece of consumer electronics (i.e. the PC), other than to say there is serious money to be made here – and that alone is an incredible motivator.
Meanwhile, over in Mobile-land, we are still relatively bug-free – let’s hope it stays that way with the advent of convergence devices such as the “Mobile Internet Device” and the Netbook….
[Image via: portablegadget.com]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
-
samper smith
