Almost all firms that exhibit at the show set up their own local networks. Unfortunately, they are typically set up quickly and with low security settings. |
Criminals will employ whatever evasive techniques they can. |
Hackers are attracted to such exhibitions by the opportunity to break in to the networks of companies taking part. |
In much the same way criminals attack innocent people, they will attack each other. |
It's like any kind of economic venture. Those that get smarter survive. Organized criminal structures are run as businesses, and they take over smaller guys. |
It's tricky to say when something like this could jump from proof of concept to being out in the wild because a lot depends on what the author's motives are and whether he wants to send it far and wide or if he just wants to show how good he is. The spread of viruses also depends on what people do with their phones. If they are only making calls, it's unlikely they will get infected. |
My own feeling is that this isn't a new threat, it's been around a couple weeks and AV vendors have had protection in place. |
This worm is not new but it continues to spread and has a damaging payload. We want to urge all computer users to update their antivirus protection before the first trigger date on 3 February. |
We didn't expect to be inundated with damage reports [because of the AV protection]. But given the payload, we felt it was wise to alert people to ensure they did update their AV and other security procedures. |