OXFORD, United Kingdom-As more smart phones appear on the market and reach the hands of end users, European cell-phone operators could lose more than 10 billion euro (US$10.7 billion) if they do not protect their networks from malicious virus attacks. This claim, from a new study by Mercer Management Consulting, estimated that between 19 percent and 30 percent of cell-phone users could be infected as the result of virus attacks on next-generation mobile phones.
The report’s author said that by 2005, Worms and Trojans could take as little as three days to reach maximum penetration. According to Mercer, the impact of this could see European operators lose up to 900 million euro (US$970 million) through the loss of customers due to virus attacks. Add to this the possible loss of 4.5 billion (US$4.8 billion) caused by the delay in takeup of 3G mobile services due to security breaches, and Mercer calculates the cost to European mobile operators could reach more than 30 percent of their revenues by 2005.
While little has been said about cell-phone virus attacks, one e-mail virus, called Timophonica, appeared in Spain and tried to send short message service (SMS) messages to random cell-phone numbers but did not spread via handsets. However, a more serious outbreak took place in Japan in June 2000. Users received prank e-mails asking them to access attached Web links. Every time someone opened the link it dialed 119, the number of the Japanese emergency services, which was swiftly inundated with calls.
