Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Some AT&T Wireless Subscribers Suspect Spam Message Damaged Their Phones

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 15:16:40 -0400

Some AT&T Wireless Subscribers Suspect Spam Message Damaged Their Phones

Some AT&T Wireless subscribers with Siemens S46 cell phones last week
received an e-mail message entitled "Need Help With International Dialing" that
they suspect contained software than corrupted the phone's address book
feature, and its ability to send and receive e-mail. The damage was done
whether the suspect message was opened or not. Siemens on Friday did not
know if the message did the damage, or if there was some defect in the phones
involved. AT&T Wireless is offering to replace the damaged phones for $10
each plus the cost of shipping and handling

=====================================================================

Suspicion arises of phone-damaging spam

By Ben Charny
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 2, 2003, 1:56 PM PT

Some AT&T Wireless subscribers believe a text message masquerading as spam is on
the loose and damaging cell phones in the United States.

The subscribers reporting the problem each owned a Siemens S46 cell phone and said they
received the e-mail this week.

Even when they did not open the e-mail, which began "Need Help With International
Dialing,"
what some say could be malicious software hidden inside wiped out the cell phones' address

book and e-mail capabilities.

It remains to be seen whether the
subscribers were victims of a
deliberate attack, which would be
among the first in the United States
to involve cell phones, or just bad
software inside the devices, a
representative of German handset
maker Siemens said Friday. The
S46 uses some of the same
Siemens software in two of the
company's cell phone models that
are available only in Europe and
were disabled in March by a wave of
possibly malicious e-mails.

The incidents highlight growing
concerns about how spam and
malicious viruses, once the domain
of personal computers only, are
beginning to spread to wireless devices. Spam is becoming more commonplace on cell
phones, enough to merit attention from this week's Federal Trade Commission Spam Forum in
Washington, D.C.

But instances of malicious attacks on cell phones are extremely rare, although cell phone
networks became vulnerable to such attacks when carriers began selling phones that can
download software. The most well-known attack occurred in Japan in 2001 when an e-mail
sent
to NTT DoCoMo subscribers forced the phone to call a police emergency hotline.

"Obviously, the carriers can't stand this happening," said Alan Reiter, an analyst with
consulting company Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing.

AT&T Wireless offered to replace the phones for $10 each plus shipping and handling, the
subscribers said. The phone sells for $50 after rebate. An AT&T Wireless representative,
who
had been unaware of the situation, did not have an immediate comment.

One AT&T Wireless subscriber, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fateful
short-text
message landed in her in-box on Wednesday. She deleted it, believing it to be spam. Later
she
found a strange entry where addresses and telephone numbers are stored. She tried to
delete
that as well, but instead got a message that the phone's address book had been corrupted.

From that point on the "built-in address book was completely shot," and the phone could no

longer send or receive short text messages or e-mail, she said.

http://news.com.com/2100-1039-999558.html

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs Online - Over 14,500 titles.
No Late Fees & Free Shipping.
Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/YoVfrB/XP.FAA/uetFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/