As mobile phones have been evolving to become more and more like computers when it comes to useful features and functions available with PCs at the same time they incurred the same problems we have when using our desktops and laptops. Smartphones with the options and operating systems much like computers have are also vulnerable to malicious applications and virus attacks which often results either in device damage or identity theft. Besides, such malware attacks also allow violators to fully control mobile devices and perform actions they initiate. Here we will discuss how we can get a virus on our mobile phone through a Bluetooth device, what implications of such attacks can be and how we can protect against them.
As reported by many media sources first virus that could spread via Bluetooth was created back in 2004. It was the benign worm called Cabir and was written by 29a, a group of virus writers which specializes in proof-of-concept viruses - they made the first viruses for .NET and for Win64.
Cabir was transmitted via Bluetooth, from the infected phone to the first it finds within range. It transmitted itself as an SIS (Symbian OS distribution) file that masqueraded as a Caribe Security Manager utility. If the worm was executed, the handset would display the inscription Caribe and would activate each time the phone was started. No other damage was caused by the virus.
However, as one source noted later it was just a short step from proof of concept to being "in the wild," and sure enough a handful of cell-phone viruses have hit handsets since the first, "Cabir," arrived.
And of course Symbian based Smartphones were not the only devices that might get a virus. At the end of 2006 hackers managed to develop a malware that could affect an ordinary mobile phone. The basis for the malicious applications was J2ME, a mobile version of Java code. The virus appeared in some countries and could be transmitted both through WAP site or Bluetooth. That Trojan worm masqueraded as a program allowing to visit WAP sites without paying for the traffic while in fact it generated SMS sent to the sites with paid content thus drawing out funds from a user's mobile phone for each transfer.