Cabir, the star of the show

Tomorrow will be the last day of CeBIT and everyone’s extremely busy. We still found the time to visit the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (the national meteorology institute providing scientific and technical services) in Braunschweig together with a German TV crew.

And why did we go there? Although the room may look like a big recording studio, the spikes on the wall aren’t to ensure clean sound, but to disperse all radio waves inside the room. Additionally, the metal plated walls and floor create a Faraday cage, making sure that all waves stay inside the room. In short, it’s a perfect location for mobile malware testing.

This gave us the opportunity to show the cameras just how Cabir, the first known smartphone virus, spreads. There are only a few known cases of Cabir infections in the wild in Germany, but everyone in the room understood that mobile malware is a real threat.

The chances of getting infected in your home country may be low. But there are other regions – like parts of Asia – where Cabir is more widespread. And that’s why we never tire of repeating the security professionals mantra: never install a program on your mobile phone if you’re not sure where it came from, and if you don’t need Bluetooth, turn it off! Even (or perhaps especially) at CeBIT.