From Phone To Computer

[pattayadingo]

Having connected a friends phone to my computer to download some photos and videos to put on CD., I was surprised at how many different viruses there were on the phone. The friends phone is never used on the internet from what I understand so they must have been transferred via bluetooth or similar. However they did get there, maybe sometimes it is worth a look to make sure your phone is clean of any virus infection.

All these viruses were picked up automatically by AVG and deleted.

[thaimite]

I would suggest it is more likely that those viruses were picked up doing something similar between the phone and another PC prior to connecting it to your PC, but I would be interested in hearing what others have to say

[nikster]

My guess would be it's USB viruses like the ones that install themselves on any Flash drive that you put in your computer. Those seem to be everywhere in Thailand, I almost always pick some up when using my USB stick in internet cafes. (I subsequently just delete them as I am on a Mac).

Not sure how good AVG is but I'd do an online scan if I were you... maybe one or two came through? Or do you have Windows auto run disabled?

[LandOfSmileys]

If the phone has a removable microSD card (memory card) and it was ever removed and put into a PC, that' where it's just the same as USB drive and get viri xfered to it. Was the virus infection in phone memory or SD card?

[Darrel]

I would suggest it is more likely that those viruses were picked up doing something similar between the phone and another PC prior to connecting it to your PC, but I would be interested in hearing what others have to say

You are correct.

[pattayadingo]

Having done some research on the phone virus since making the original post I have discovered it is easy for one phone to pass a virus to another using Bluetooth. Using Bluetooth to transfer an already infected file will result in a virus infection on the receiving phone. If someone has downloaded an infected file from another source that virus is then transferred and as you execute the file yourself your phone is now infected. So you do not have to have been on the internet to have one or more viruses on your phone.

I will add that the infected phone in question still seemed to work normally. If the user had decided to connect to the internet at some future point in time then I can see that the infections might be activated.

Maybe an idea to connect your phone to the computer occasionally to check for any virus infection if you have transferred files from another phone and use anti-virus to clean the infections.

[bendejo]

What kind of phone does your friend have?

Regardless, we're talking two different kinds of executables, one that runs on the PC, the other on the phone.

Just because it had stored on it some infected files that could have damaged a PC running Windows does not mean the virus was active on the device -- like someone said above, it was like files on a USB drive.

[Jdietz]

I've seen plenty of virus ridden phones, most of them were loaded with songs at some internet cafe. The phones don't care as they can't run the stuff anyways, but it may infect an unprotected PC when connected to it later.

[pattayadingo]

What kind of phone does your friend have?

Regardless, we're talking two different kinds of executables, one that runs on the PC, the other on the phone.

Just because it had stored on it some infected files that could have damaged a PC running Windows does not mean the virus was active on the device -- like someone said above, it was like files on a USB drive.

A nokia. Not sure of the model but not a new fangled one.

No effect on the phone itself as the phone is working normally. I suspect they are computer virus as opposed to phone virus as I mentioned earlier. Seems they infected files were contracted via bluetooth as that phone has never been attached to the internet or a computer before.

[bendejo]

Shape of things to come?

http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/14/malware-android-2012/