Prof. Shlomo Havlin from the physics department at Bar-Ilan University offers a solution to the problem of viruses in cell phones. According to experts' estimates, within two or three years they will be the biggest nuisance of the communication networks - even more difficult than the scourge of computer viruses.
Prof. Heblin created a mathematical model for understanding the phenomena that occur in networks that are reminiscent of the spread of influenza viruses and other pathogens that operate in a similar network pattern.
"Soon we will reach a point in time after which mobile phone viruses will be more common, harmful and destructive than computer viruses these days," says Prof. Heblin.
According to his idea, the containment of the spread of cell phone viruses should be done by dividing the communication network into "many, many tiny networks". In each one, only the devices that maintain communication between the small networks will be detected and protected. That is, instead of 'vaccinating' against the cellular viruses a million users, only the 100 or 1,000 most linked will be 'vaccinated', and the rest will not need the vaccination software at all.
Prof. Heblin and his colleagues in the field addressed the issue in an article in Science magazine and identified two main types of mobile communication viruses: the first is the one that will damage the Bluetooth protocol and the second is the one that will sabotage the MMS high-speed multimedia message services. Bluetooth is a short-range communication technology that transmits voice, image and data data between cell phones, within a radius of 10 meters to 30 meters, and with the help of relay stations also for greater distances.
The Bluetooth viruses spread between the devices like the flu virus: a sick device infects the device closest to it, and it will pass it on. The MMS viruses spread in the sharing format, so within a few minutes another virus can infect billions of devices all over the world. The MMS virus, in fact, launches itself as a copy to the entire list of phone numbers in the device's memory.
"The speed at which Bluetooth viruses spread is relatively slow and depends on the amount of movement of the user on the infected device. It will take days or weeks for the spread of the virus to attack a large population of users," explains Prof. Havlin and adds that "this is the window of time for the cellular service providers to filter and stop the spread of a virus on the network."
But the biggest and real danger is the MMS viruses, "in the past, such a distribution pattern was reserved only for computer viruses", explains Prof. Heblin, since these can easily spread between users. Mobile phones have different operating systems, so this infection feature is not effective. If everyone were to use one and the same system - and that's where the market rower is - the speed of the spread of viruses would be enormous.
"Because of the fashion trend, more users are starting to operate similar cell phones. That's why the clusters have grown, and with them the spread of viruses is accelerated." When one manufacturer achieves a critical global market share, the small and isolated groups of users will converge into a single giant cluster. "This will be the next transition stage in the process of spreading the use of cell phones in the world, and with it more and more viruses will spread."
6 תגובות
And maybe the solution is what commenter #2 suggested: go back to the good old cell phone designed only for calls, and use dedicated devices for taking and viewing photos, music and other vegetables? The ultra-orthodox are already doing it—they call it "kosher cell phones." Sometimes kosher is also safer.
For 1: The reason Linux doesn't have such things is that too few people use it. If everyone switches to Linux, viruses will start to be developed for this operating system as well.
If you set the bluetooth on the phone to hidden mode, there shouldn't be a connection problem. You only need to set the "discoverable" mode for a short time when trying to connect a device you trust. But regardless of that, this is an interesting study on a mathematical model that can be relevant to other systems as well - for example, the analogy to catching the flu.
Or you can simply use the cell phone for calls and the computer for media
everything at its time
A Linux based operating system might solve this