Comments on: Bluetooth As Social Disruptive Tool?

By: Babar Bhatti

Babar Bhatti — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:30:42 +0000

Good tip about mobile virus protection, I think this kind of malware protection for mobiles will become common over time and may very well be included in the service as a value-add.

I’ve also heard about “Bluejacking” (sending spam bluetooth messages - term used in UK). Don’t know if it is a pervasive problem or not.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:42:45 +0000

@waqas
yes it is… but PC doesnt be with you all times but cell does.
Where ever u go… for eg from office….on the way…park..restaurant….ceremonies…
u get the same *.sis file bugging u…and a simple button press will welcome it into your cell
E-mail might be virus -prone but blue tooth viruses can be more frequent and can make u a guinne pig to propogate themselves
Believe me….there is much population that is serving as a guinni pig out there on the streets

i am not talking against Bluetooth….just making aware what diseases people are having in their cells
and to remove the same….refer to my post above

By: liveunplugged@hotmail.com

liveunplugged@hotmail.com — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:25:46 +0000

Ahmed that’s a pretty nice question and most of us need to get aware of - Symantec’s Norton offers anti virus and spam for your handsets and here’s what it does according to the product description, it also covers the your bluetooth concern:

Key Benefits

Protects against viruses and other threats— Prevents malicious threats from entering your smartphone and compromising your privacy.

Minimizes SMS spam—Blocks short text and multimedia messages from unknown senders.

Blocks snoopware from turning on your camera—Prevents intruders from entering and exporting data from the mobile phone.

FeaturesAdvanced protection:

Award-winning Norton AntiVirus™ technologies automatically scan, detect, and quarantine harmful viruses, worms, and mobile spyware in individual files, file archives, and applications.

SMS antispam protection: Short messages (text and multimedia) from unknown senders are blocked.

Real-time protection: Enhanced firewall blocks hackers, intrusions, and denial-of-service attacks.

The Symbian® and the Microsoft® Windows Mobile® platforms are supported.
Easy-to-use interface: You can easily manage and schedule antivirus scans and protection updates*, set the firewall protection level, and manage which files are encrypted.

On-demand scans allow you to check for viruses in individual files, file archives, and applications.

The device is protected against malicious code downloaded from the Web, sent via email or a Wi-Fi connection, or “beamed via Bluetooth” or infrared ports.
Product and virus definition updates are delivered wirelessly via LiveUpdate™.*

The application is optimized to preserve your smartphone’s performance.

An activity log shows all recently logged events to help make you aware of potential risks.

User alerting allows you to respond quickly to potential threats.

By: waqas

waqas — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:16:20 +0000

@Ahmed
That’s similar to getting an exe file by email or IM. Fact is, email used to be more risky and virus prone than bluetooth.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:06:27 +0000

I think all of us are just looking at one side of figure ie. message comm. between devices through BT
have u ever noticed one thing?
If u keep ur bluetooth ON at all times….u ll be receiving “ if u accept it
Gotcha!…u r the xxxxxth victim of ^CeLlUlAr UnDeRwOrLd^
that file is not sent deliberately by the users…
It is a virus that propogates itself from device to device and the holder even doesnt know

what do u comment on this???
keep your cell virus free by running antivirus after connecting it to a PC …just like any other Flash Disk

By: liveunplugged@hotmail.com

liveunplugged@hotmail.com — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:31:57 +0000

I don’t whether this sort of technology has an existence that when you point towards a guy or a girl in the crowd and your cell speaks “Right Girl” “Right Guy” “Keep Away” etc ;). Just thinking out loud!

By: waqas

waqas — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:37:12 +0000

I don’t go to weddings, but that’s a nice tip Faried! :)

Nash/Nasir, I certainly would not want authorities doing any sort of monitoring on my communications. They can’t monitor bluetooth anyway.

By: liveunplugged@hotmail.com

liveunplugged@hotmail.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:22:53 +0000

Pakistani consumers regardless of youngster or anyone is good at gadgetry. They may sometimes not know the rationale behind the service and the what to use in which situation but they sure know how to operate almost all technologies. Damn. That wedding thing never occured to me. Good one Faried. Even I’ll try it out for fun. Lots of weddings coming up! :)

By: Faried Nawaz

Faried Nawaz — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:37:51 +0000

The next time you’re at a wedding, Faraz, enable bluetooth and check out the other phones.

Nasir, what possible “security measure” would you have implemented?

By: Nash

Nash — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:56:04 +0000

I would humbly disagree with Faraz. As almost 100% of the youth has quite a good idea of how to use a phone and how can the capabilities be enhanced. And, almost all the phones now a days have B.T.

We must write and discuss on such fears as to make the authorities realize that some security measures should be introduced.

BR,

Nasir Abbas