Bluejacked, with mobile virus!

Bluejacked, with mobile virus!

Naveen Namboodiri

It’s the weekend and you are shopping at one of Bangalore’s bursting-at-the-seams malls. Your bluetooth-equipped mobile flashes this message: “I like your shirt.” Don’t look startled. You’ve been bluejacked, say by somebody who prefers to be known as King of Hell. It’s one of those umpteen ways modern technology can be misused. Bluejacking, for the uninformed, is the business of sending unsolicited messages from mobile to mobile, enabled with bluetooth technology. The target

The ‘bluejacker’ can search for his ‘targets’ — other phones with bluetooth, within a range of ten metres — and send across anything from text messages to pictures to addresses. Most ‘victims’ will have no idea as to how the message popped up on their phone. While bluejacking is not illegal, it could well land you in trouble. The thumb rule, therefore, is to send innocuous and inoffensive messages that will bring a smile, or perhaps a bewildered expression on the reciever’s face, but not raise tempers. The flipside An innocent caper it may be, but bluejacking has it pitfalls. The biggest problem is that the ‘bluejacked’ often end up with virus that slows down his mobile. Says Shwetal, who works for a leading media house, “I usually keep the bluetooth option on my phone off for fear of receiving virus. Many of my friends’ phones have conked out after receiving virus from anonymous people.” One of the virus, Cabir, arrives in the message inbox as a caribe.sis file. If a user installs the .sis file, the worm will be activated. Once activated, the worm writes “Caribe” on the screen and is active every time the phone is t urned on. If the bluetooth option on one phone is active, the virus will jump to the other bluetooth-active instrument even before the user can disable it. The other virus that bluetooth phone users dread is Comwarrior that appears as comwarrior.sis. Says Manjunath, a college student, “Often, the virus transmits on its own. Your are in a crowd and your phone suddenly flashes a number. Within seconds, the virus is in your phone.” Charan, a software professional, however, says one need not be unduly worried about receiving viruses. “I got a picture message and saved it in my phone. Till date, I haven’t faced any problem. Don’t worry. The virus is absolutely harmless. It will create messages like Internet Installer and try to to send it to numbers selected from your phone. But it cannot do that. Viruses like Cabir can only slow down your set.”