Do We Really Need Anti-Virus on S60?

Ricky,

To say that S60 anti-virus is becoming more useless with every edition is really shortsighted on your part.

For any E series device, something like anti-virus is very, very useful. Especially if you have something like blackberry connect or you use the device on a regular basis to push/sync emails. Anything that gets downloaded to the device OTA and then uploaded to a PC during sync is a potential virus/security issue, and that’s why this sort of software is necessary.

I’ve come to expect better analysis from you, and you’ve dropped the ball on this one.

Ricky,

To say that S60 anti-virus is becoming more useless with every edition is really shortsighted on your part.

For any E series device, something like anti-virus is very, very useful. Especially if you have something like blackberry connect or you use the device on a regular basis to push/sync emails. Anything that gets downloaded to the device OTA and then uploaded to a PC during sync is a potential virus/security issue, and that’s why this sort of software is necessary.

I’ve come to expect better analysis from you, and you’ve dropped the ball on this one.

JC – I don’t see that it’s shortsighted at all. You have to remember that first of all there’s no such thing as a virus for 3rd Edition currently, except in a lab. That’s important to note.

The second thing is that anything you get via email is going to be designed to infect a Windows machine, correct? Thus, it couldn’t install itself on an S60 device, and even if it could, there are too many notifications that must be approved before anything can be installed on an S60 device.

If you’re getting it on the device and then syncing to the PC, don’t you have anti-virus on your PC?

-Ricky.

JC – I don’t see that it’s shortsighted at all. You have to remember that first of all there’s no such thing as a virus for 3rd Edition currently, except in a lab. That’s important to note.

The second thing is that anything you get via email is going to be designed to infect a Windows machine, correct? Thus, it couldn’t install itself on an S60 device, and even if it could, there are too many notifications that must be approved before anything can be installed on an S60 device.

If you’re getting it on the device and then syncing to the PC, don’t you have anti-virus on your PC?

-Ricky.

Ricky,

You usually do have anti-virus on a PC. You don’t always know that stuff moving through a sync conduit and written into an exchange database is going to be scanned properly. It’s a crapshoot, and most admins would rather not take that risk.

My old company, and let’s just say they weren’t quite a F500 company, more like in the top 10 of the F500, wouldn’t allow ANY mobile device access to any company resource without some sort of anti-virus software on the device. And if you look at the usual literature for network admins you’ll quickly find that those sort of restrictions are par for the course.

This is vital for Nokia, as eventually they’ll release a competent E-Series business device (I jest, but only partially). Having AV software in place is important if those devices are going to be used behind corporate firewalls.

Ricky,

You usually do have anti-virus on a PC. You don’t always know that stuff moving through a sync conduit and written into an exchange database is going to be scanned properly. It’s a crapshoot, and most admins would rather not take that risk.

My old company, and let’s just say they weren’t quite a F500 company, more like in the top 10 of the F500, wouldn’t allow ANY mobile device access to any company resource without some sort of anti-virus software on the device. And if you look at the usual literature for network admins you’ll quickly find that those sort of restrictions are par for the course.

This is vital for Nokia, as eventually they’ll release a competent E-Series business device (I jest, but only partially). Having AV software in place is important if those devices are going to be used behind corporate firewalls.

JC – Good point, and I’m sure there are companies that require mobile devices to have anti-virus, thus the reason that F-Secure and the others have an offering, but let’s face it, for most consumers, it’s a useless app.

JC – Good point, and I’m sure there are companies that require mobile devices to have anti-virus, thus the reason that F-Secure and the others have an offering, but let’s face it, for most consumers, it’s a useless app.

Ricky,

Yeah, for most *consumers* it’s a pointless app.

For a company like Nokia, who pushes a line of *business* phones, it’s a vital and necessary app. So my point still stands that your ‘useless’ comment was way off base and, well, useless. :)

Ricky,

Yeah, for most *consumers* it’s a pointless app.

For a company like Nokia, who pushes a line of *business* phones, it’s a vital and necessary app. So my point still stands that your ‘useless’ comment was way off base and, well, useless. :)

I would say its probably mostly “useless” in the sense that the likelihood of a virus at least as of now is close to zero, but at the same equally “necessary” for the business acceptability reasons mentioned by JC. :)

I would say its probably mostly “useless” in the sense that the likelihood of a virus at least as of now is close to zero, but at the same equally “necessary” for the business acceptability reasons mentioned by JC. :)

Of course security is important if you have such vital data that absolutely can not fall into the wrong hands, but since it really isn’t an issue on S60v3, antivirus applications on the device itself aren’t anything to be bothered with. Your high security office might require you have it on your S60 device, but that still doesn’t mean it’s necessary. The only real potential threat that could leak device information would be something like a harmful script from a spoofed website or similar that would transmit your information, and F-Secure wouldn’t be able to stop that anyway.

On S60v2, antivirus software was much more valuable since there were real applications on a software level that could not only transmit your information, but also corrupt your phone entirely and render it useless. I use to get random BT connection requests on campus all the time, but I never accepted them with my S60v2 devices. I let my N80 download AND install one of those phantom applications one day, and the security settings in v3 wouldn’t let it install anyway.

On other devices, antivirus may be necessary, but it just plain isn’t if you’re running a newer S60 device, no matter what kind of user you are or how important your data is .

Of course security is important if you have such vital data that absolutely can not fall into the wrong hands, but since it really isn’t an issue on S60v3, antivirus applications on the device itself aren’t anything to be bothered with. Your high security office might require you have it on your S60 device, but that still doesn’t mean it’s necessary. The only real potential threat that could leak device information would be something like a harmful script from a spoofed website or similar that would transmit your information, and F-Secure wouldn’t be able to stop that anyway.

On S60v2, antivirus software was much more valuable since there were real applications on a software level that could not only transmit your information, but also corrupt your phone entirely and render it useless. I use to get random BT connection requests on campus all the time, but I never accepted them with my S60v2 devices. I let my N80 download AND install one of those phantom applications one day, and the security settings in v3 wouldn’t let it install anyway.

On other devices, antivirus may be necessary, but it just plain isn’t if you’re running a newer S60 device, no matter what kind of user you are or how important your data is .

Something to add, even in their video, the speaker specifically says that Caribe would not have been able to infect either phone with the S60v3 platform. This video only showed the evolution of how S60 devices respond to incoming Bluetooth transmissions (he also could’ve hit the “End” key to get rid of the message as well). Even if you pressed “Yes” to accept the message on either phone, it would be put in the text message inbox. Even from there, if you specifically opened it from your inbox, you wouldn’t be able to install it on the device because it was a virus written for S60v2. No viruses have been written for S60v3 yet in the 2+ years it has been out.

Something to add, even in their video, the speaker specifically says that Caribe would not have been able to infect either phone with the S60v3 platform. This video only showed the evolution of how S60 devices respond to incoming Bluetooth transmissions (he also could’ve hit the “End” key to get rid of the message as well). Even if you pressed “Yes” to accept the message on either phone, it would be put in the text message inbox. Even from there, if you specifically opened it from your inbox, you wouldn’t be able to install it on the device because it was a virus written for S60v2. No viruses have been written for S60v3 yet in the 2+ years it has been out.

One of the drawbacks that i see from getting your hands on one of these is that they seriously slow down your phone, and in the case of the already tight strapped RAM of the n95 – it’ll be Hell for the user !

Moreover there aren’t many viruses around for the s60 v3 phones as yet, so you can just keep the sisx file on your phone incase of an emergency.

But the firewall and intusion detection are certainly things that we can’t live without – especially in today’s world of digital espionage and theft…cyber theives can ruin your life with touch of a button !! Scary isn’t it?

regards,
dilin – http://s603rd.blogspot.com

One of the drawbacks that i see from getting your hands on one of these is that they seriously slow down your phone, and in the case of the already tight strapped RAM of the n95 – it’ll be Hell for the user !

Moreover there aren’t many viruses around for the s60 v3 phones as yet, so you can just keep the sisx file on your phone incase of an emergency.

But the firewall and intusion detection are certainly things that we can’t live without – especially in today’s world of digital espionage and theft…cyber theives can ruin your life with touch of a button !! Scary isn’t it?

regards,
dilin – http://s603rd.blogspot.com