In a class in school, I suggested the possibility of malware infecting more platforms than just computers, and the possibility of selling anti-malware solutions for those devices. My professor, in a rather strange turn, offered me some extra credit if I could elaborate on that in a paper. I spent the next few weeks learning how the J2ME worked (and learned a chunk of Java at the same time) and creating an app which attached to the camera, and without notifying the phone owner, snapped a picture and sent it via MMS. I submitted the code with my paper, and elaborated on the fact that this malware could very well spread through MMS to other phones, provided they were the same type, or had similar environments. My professor responded with "Nice research, but I very much doubt that a mobile phone would ever be a high profile target."

Turns out, my professor was incredibly wrong. In fact, just yesterday, Spanish police apparently arrested a man who created malware that transferred itself via bluetooth. While I'm definitely not a fan of malware, and tend to hold my ethics very close, I still have to cheer this guy on. It was just a matter of time until malware-developers began working on your phone through the WAP, Bluetooth, 802.11, MMS/SMS, etc. Users need to become aware of it. This is especially the case as mobile software development with C# in Windows Mobile and python in the newer Nokia phones allows developers more access to all the internal goodies

I was thinking that my next Proof of Concept would be TiVo malware, and see if there's any future in that as well.