iPhone Virus – What the future will bring
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
While I am tapping away on my new iphone 3G- writing this blog post – I can’t help thinking about the potential risk from viruses for my lovely new phone. As far as I know it is running a toned down version of the normal apples OSX and as such it is probably open to the same security risks. Furthermore the iphone is still quite expensive and only available for people with the right amount of cash. In other words a very interesting target group for hackers who are e.g. after peoples bank details.
So let’s think about it for a while. I am not really a technical geek or a developer, so I am just coming up with some ideas and different scenario and hope for some replies from people who can shed some more light on this issue. So keep the posts coming.
Scenario 1.
My phone is infected with a kind of a Trojan Virus. As I am always connected to the mobile network, hackers can – whenever they like – logon to my phone, read/delete my phonebook, delete my applications, itunes songs, videos and all personal information. They can use my phone remotely and even make phone calls or go shopping in itunes with my account.
Scenario 2.
I have picked up a virus that automatically reads my personal information, sends them to a foreign server, erases the phone memory and hard drive and makes it unusable. Among other things, part of my personal information are my itunes music store details that include my credit card details. Hackers now know all about me and also have my bank details.
These are just two things I can think of at the moment – but I feel these scenarios are not that far fetched. So where does this lead us? Do I now have to check the website of Norton Antivirus and see if they already have an iphone version? Do I have to surf the mobile web with the same caution that I – theoretically – should take while browsing the online web?
Am I all wrong? Please comment!
