New smart phones might be too intelligent

by Alejandra Molina
Staff Writer

Cell phone users – at least those choosing the so-called smart phone variety – could be at risk of contracting the same kind of viri that can cripple computer users.

According to a recent article posted on the Web site www.NewScientist.com, the smart phone is the hottest type of handset on the market right now; it combines the functions of a telephone, a personal digital assistant, digital video camera and Web browser.

For the technology addict, this phone is hard to resist.

With the many benefits that this phone offers, who would not want this phone?

A typical smart phone has a processor and memory that allow it to run software programs, enabling the phone to also function as an MP3 music player, Web browser and e-mail client.

Additional applications allows users to take pictures, play games, download and read electronic books.
AT&T introduced its Motorola MPx200 smart phone with Windows Mobile software.

It has pocket versions of Microsoft Outlook, MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. With this phone, users can manage their Microsoft Office inbox, calendar and contacts.

“The smart phone allows you to do multiple things instead of just receiving calls,” said junior communications major Jay Aguilar.

“It’s all right there and it is easy to carry around,” he said.

But smart phones are dependent on a GPRS connection, which means they are permanently plugged into the Internet, leaving them vulnerable for virus attacks.

In fact several phone viri, or more accurately Trojan Horses, have been detected recently – though so far they have stayed on foreign soil.

Such viri can eat into the phone's operating system, causing it to shut down and erase personal information.

In European and Asian nations, which have been using the technology longer, such maladies have wreaked various degrees of havoc.

In Japan, a virus transmitted via e-mail messages was sent to cell phones connected to the Internet; it caused the phones to repeatedly dial the emergency phone number.

In Europe, cell phone users who have short message service, or SMS, were sent pieces of malicious binary code that crashed the phones, forcing the user to detach the battery and reboot.

Telephones that are connected to the Internet can be used to transmit threats as actual tools of terrorism, Stephen Trilling, director of research at antivirus software maker Symantec Corp. recently told the Associated Press.

In the United states, T-Mobile so far is the only cell phone network operator to install a firewall on its GPRS network, following the discovery that its high-speed mobile service was being probed by hackers.

So what is the only sure way to avoid these attacks?

For sophomore Ricky Estrada, his only solution is to stick with his plain T-Mobile phone.

“I like it, it’s simple,” he said. “If I need to use the Internet, I could just use my computer.”