Nokia downplays mobile virus threat

Nokia is not concerned by the virus threat, but still recommends users to install firewall and antivirus software

Nokia today downplayed the danger from mobile viruses, maintaining that it does not consider them a major threat.

The denial comes in the wake of a report published last week by analyst firm Gartner identifying the threat from mobile viruses as one of the greatest security myths, and claiming that mobile antivirus software would be ineffective. 

Janne Uusilehto, Nokia's senior technology manager, told vnunet.com that mobile viruses were unlikely to pose an immediate danger, in part due to lessons learned from the PC industry.

"So far we have seen no viruses that can spread without a human around to accept the code; there is no vulnerability in the operating system itself," he said.

"We believe that the virus threat will not be the same as for PCs, because we were aware of what happened in the PC world when the mobile phone platform was created.

"Some of the security functionality has been [built in] whereas PCs that were developed in the 1970s had nothing."

Although mobile malware was first spotted last year, the only examples are variants of two Trojan programs, Cabir and Skulls, which rely on fooling the user into accepting the download by pretending to be legitimate software.

Although Nokia is not concerned by the virus threat, it is still recommending that users install a firewall and antivirus software on their phones as it believes that every stage of an enterprise IT system should have some protection.

Uusilehto pointed out that this is especially true for Symbian Series 60 phones as their popularity makes them currently the only targeted mobile operating system.