Cabir Worm starts becoming a nuisance for American Mobile Users

Within days of the news becoming public that the first mobile virus has been spotted in the wild in the United States of America, the media has gone into frenzy with more and more reports coming in reporting the Cabir Worm. The virus, which originated in Philippines, has been reported to be spreading in the American mobile phone users. The worm basically targets smart phones, which are basically a hybrid mobile phone with PDA functionalities.

For Cabir to spread around from one device to another, both devices (the infected and the vulnerable unit) must have a Bluetooth wireless data transfer facility. The worm spreads through its nearby phones by wireless contact in a definite range.

Mobiles with highly complicated feature set are more prone to these worm attacks considering the possibilities of the vulnerabilities increase with the enhanced functionality. Nokia has already started to include anti-virus software in its latest Smart phones. However, antivirus applications are yet to become a common application on existing users of Smartphones.

This first virus found in the wild is not exactly harmful to the data stored on the device as it only acts as a nuisance by draining the batteries of the mobile device fast. The group of hackers who claim to have developed this worm is 29A Labs, which has aimed to create new, unique, and interesting viruses. Reports also say that the worm also has the potential of baring your cell phone to call 900 numbers only.