More virulent, stealthy and voluminous malware for smartphones such as the
Apple iPhone, BlackBerrys, Google Android and devices running the Microsoft
Mobile is coming as these platforms become more open to application developers,
says Eugene Kaspersky, the chief executive and founder of anti-virus vendor
Kaspersky Lab.
In a meeting at the RSA Conference,
Kaspersky says that malware targeting smartphones isn’t a serious problem now,
mostly because the platforms are closed and complicated and the devices lack
the processing power to support both legitimate applications and malicious
code. But, when devices become more powerful and more applications are added,
he says it’s a near certainty that smartphone malware will explode.
“My company will have a lot of work protecting mobile phone platforms. The
more friendly the platforms become, the more malware will come,” Kaspersky
says.
Malware targeting mobile devices appeared around 2002, targeting the early
Web-enabled phones and peer-to-peer data sharing devices. The level of
smartphone malware proliferation is muted compared with the hundreds of
thousands of malware samples targeting Windows clients and servers discovered
in the last year alone.
Kaspersky believes the limited number of smartphone malware is more a
reflection of the nature of the platform and their operating systems.
Smartphones such as BlackBerry and iPhone are relatively closed platforms that
have a limited number of applications and a small community of supporting
engineers.
What concerns Kaspersky is the necessity of smartphone vendors and operating
system publishers to achieve economies of scale: open, user-friendly systems.
Just as Microsoft won the operating system wars of the early 1990s by
publishing software development kits (SDKs) and application programming
interfaces to gain acceptance and market share, smartphone manufacturers will
have to become less parochial of their platforms and build communities of
engineers.
“If they want to stay in the market, they’ll have to have an open network
[for application development],” Kaspersky says.
Building a community of supporting engineers will undoubtedly create a
counter group of malware writers who will leverage the more open platforms and
breadth of applications to create Trojans, worms and viruses designed to steal
valuable assets and information, such as banking credentials.
Apple pioneered the smartphone application development market with its App Store
on iTunes, a site that allows third-party developers to create and market their
software creations. In recent months, Microsoft, Nokia and Research In Motion
(RIM) have announced plans to create similar application stores for their
mobile platforms.
In the Channel
Insider 2009 Market Pulse Report, solution providers reported
increasing demand among their customers for smartphone support services—implementation,
maintenance and management.
