Modeling the spread of mobile malware
The popularity of mobile phones and the Internet makes it more enticing for hackers to write viruses and create malicious code. There are currently over 150 mobile viruses today. As a result, the mobile viruses in the US are currently at its tipping point. The first known cellular virus in the United States is called Cabir; and was discovered in 2004. In this paper we reveal how cellular phones with Symbian and Windows operating systems can get infected through various channels such as Bluetooth or WiFi. We investigate the transmission rate of mobile malwares in Washington, DC from 2005 to 2012. We choose to focus our research in the Washington, DC metropolitan area because it is a city that is critical to US national security with a potential high risk to cyber terrorism attacks. The goal of our study to show the impact of mobile malware in cell phones in Washington, DC using the SIS epidemic model, thus helping these cell phone users to prepare now to guard against a future mobile malware epidemic in Washington, DC. We then proposed some prevention methods as possible solutions for mobile phone users to protect themselves from future malware attacks.
