At least 100,000 phones will be infected in 2007

According to a panel of experts assembled by the SANS Institute, cell phone worms will infect at least 100,000 phones in 2007, TechNewsWorld reports.
“Cell phones are becoming more powerful, with full-featured operating systems and readily available software development environments,” they said. “That makes them fertile territory for attackers fueled by cell phone adware profitability.”
Malware aimed at mobile phones has been seen in the past, but it has not been considered a serious problem. That will change, contends SANS Director of Research Alan Paller.
“No one could figure out why writing a cell phone worm would be useful, but it turns out that it is extremely useful, because people are now doing their e-mail on their cell phones. So a worm in a cell phone can be a way to do phishing exercises, for example, to steal people’s passwords and user names. It can also be a way to launch denial-of-service attacks,” he said.