October 17, 2003
Mobile antivirus engine in development
Following an earlier story reported this week by CNN, on mobile virus threats, this time PCPro reports on predictions of viruses spreading on mobile phones.
"The speed at which these threats start to happen will be much faster than with the first PC viruses,' he said. 'But don't expect many threats until late 2004, early 2005.
A recent study by Mercer Research predicted that without defences against mobile-borne attacks, by 2005 each incident would cost $2bn, with viruses infecting as much as 30 per cent of the population in just three days".
NTT DoCoMo and Network Associates, which makes the McAfee antivirus product line, are working on an antivirus engine which should be ready before then. It will offer protection against SMS scams and other hoaxes too.
See also ZDNet article "DoCoMo teams with McAfee on wireless antivirus".
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