What is a Mobile Phone Virus?

Is your Mobile getting Slower and Acts on its Own?

Mobile phone viruses are malicious codes designed for cellular devices. They spread from one affected phone to a well-working phone. Mobile phone viruses are the same as computer viruses. The only difference is the environment.

Mobile phone viruses can be coded by programmers for commercial purposes. The programmers are financially motivated to create viruses and then send counteracting anti-viruses to security software companies. This way they are able to sell the anti-viruses for a lot of money.

The Kaspersky labs in Russia and Symantec of the United States are some of software security companies that have dealt immensely with mobile phone hoaxes.

A good example of mobile phone viruses is “curse of silence” which usually makes Nokia phones to have difficulties in receiving messages. It attacks the Nokia software. Mobile phone viruses can affect your mobile phone to an extent that you will have to reset your phone. To stay secure, you can install an antivirus on your phone.

Bluetooth is one of the ways and means that phones contract viruses. Mobile phone viruses search for other devices within a range of approximately 30 meters. If Bluetooth is turned on in phones within that range the virus transmits itself. It’s easy to accept the viruses since they disguise themselves as security warnings. Once they install themselves in the mobile phone, it starts to scan around for more devices to infect. It drains your mobile phone battery as scanning involves a lot of power.

Another way mobile phone viruses spread is through calls. For example you might receive a call with ACE screen caller identification. Do not pick such a call since ACE is a virus that will infect your mobile phone. It deletes some information from both your SIM card and mobile phone spoiling the telephone network connection. This is among the mobile phone viruses that make a phone completely non-functional. Once ACE infects your phone, the only solution is to buy a new phone and learn a lesson to never again receive such a call.

Mobile phone viruses are also spread through computers. In other words there are viruses that affect both computers and mobile phones. An example of such is "Timofonica" virus. The computer victims receive it as e-mail message accompanied by an attachment. Once the email attachment is opened, it sends itself to every other e-mail address available in the address book. The virus in the computer sends a text to a randomly selected cell phone number. The affected phone spreads these texts around its network. Within a very short time mobile phone viruses affect a thousand of phones.  

You can avoid mobile phone viruses by not accepting suspicious codes sent through Bluetooth. Do not receive calls with suspicious caller identifications. End the call immediately to avoid dire results. Information is power. The best way to stay out of danger is by being abreast with the news. It’s in the television news, websites and print media that you will read about various threats that technology has brought including mobile phone viruses and other viruses that affect computers. You visit major news websites any time or watch business news to stay informed.

To avoid the spread of the mobile phone viruses its wise to share the information inform of an e-mail instead of using the phone. Always beware and prevent your device against mobile phone viruses!