The study entitled “Insights into Mobile Spam, World’s First Collaborative Empirical Study” was released today by the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Intrado subsidiary bmd wireless. Results show that spam - a well known problem from the Internet and e-mail world - will increasingly infect the mobile world. The study indicates that more than 8 in 10 mobile phone users surveyed have received unsolicited messages and are more likely to change their operator than their mobile number to fight the problem. With complaints about mobile phone spam on the rise, both consumers and businesses see wireless operator self-regulation as the most important action against unsolicited mobile messages or spam.
A total of 1,659 completed consumer surveys and 154 surveys from mobile service company professionals. Conducted in November and December 2004, the study includes results from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the United States, Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia.
Insight: And you thought that the cell phone was immune to virus attacks? Think again. This reports shows that with the cell phone becoming a powerful computing platform which makes it a target for those who build viruses. This reminds me of the “Spy. vs. Spy” cartoon in Mad Magazine: the virus producers (black) are trying to outdo the Spy catchers (white). What’s being done about it? See the write up of the next briefing with Symantec regarding (the white hat guys) on what they are doing to stop viruses and other intrusions by the bad guys.
