Cell Phones Relatively Safe from Viruses...... For Now.

We can get viruses from the Internet. But can we catch viruses on our cell phones? A new study in the journal Science says yes, but the spread of such malicious mobile software won’t reach epidemic proportions until more cell phones are on the same operating system.
Computers are vulnerable to viruses because they share data, especially over the Internet. Of course, nowadays, more people are using their cell phones for email, text messaging and downloading annoying ring tones. So it stands to reason that cell phone viruses are a threat, as well.
Scientists used anonymous call data from more than six million cell phone users to help model a potential outbreak. And they concluded that viruses that spread from phone to phone by Bluetooth are not much concern, because users have to be in close physical proximity for their phones to “see” one another. However, viruses that spread through multimedia messaging services—so they’d come disguised as, say, a cool tune sent by a friend—can move much faster. The good news is that to be effective, these viruses need their victims to all use the same operating system. Which not enough of us do. Because there is no Microsoft Vista for mobile phones, yet. Thank goodness.

相對(duì)來(lái)說(shuō)病毒對(duì)手機(jī)的威脅還不嚴(yán)重……但只是現(xiàn)在。

我們的計(jì)算機(jī)能從互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上感染病毒。但是我們的手機(jī)也能遭受病毒侵害么？發(fā)表在《科學(xué)》（Science）雜志上的一項(xiàng)新研究給出了肯定的答案，但是除非更多的手機(jī)使用同一個(gè)操作系統(tǒng)，否則這種惡意手機(jī)病毒不會(huì)泛濫成災(zāi)。

計(jì)算機(jī)容易受到病毒的進(jìn)攻，這是因?yàn)橛?jì)算機(jī)共享數(shù)據(jù)，尤其是通過(guò)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)來(lái)共享。當(dāng)然，目前越來(lái)越多的人們使用他們的手機(jī)來(lái)發(fā)電子郵件、發(fā)送短信、下載那些“煩人的”鈴聲。所以有理由推斷手機(jī)病毒一樣也是一種威脅。

科學(xué)家們使用來(lái)自超過(guò)6百萬(wàn)個(gè)手機(jī)用戶(hù)的匿名電話數(shù)據(jù)模擬可能的病毒爆發(fā)。他們得出結(jié)論：通過(guò)藍(lán)牙在手機(jī)之間傳播的病毒不構(gòu)成太大的問(wèn)題，因?yàn)檫@些手機(jī)使用者必須離的很近，這樣他們的手機(jī)才能互相“看見(jiàn)”。但是，那些通過(guò)多媒體信息傳輸服務(wù)擴(kuò)散的病毒能以快得多的速度傳播。這些病毒在傳播過(guò)程中會(huì)喬裝打扮，比如它們會(huì)以朋友發(fā)送的一首很酷的歌曲的形式傳播。不過(guò)好消息是，這些病毒想要喬裝傳播，它們需要手機(jī)使用者都使用同樣的操作系統(tǒng)，而目前我們之中還沒(méi)有多少人這樣做，因?yàn)檫�沒(méi)有針對(duì)手機(jī)的“微軟遠(yuǎn)景”出現(xiàn)，這可真是謝天謝地。

Vocabulary:

Virus：病毒
Malicious：有害的
Epidemic：流行病；泛濫
Vulnerable：易受…傷害的
Annoying：令人討厭的
Anonymous：匿名的
Potential：潛在的
Outbreak：大爆發(fā)
Proximity：臨近
Disguise：?jiǎn)萄b
Effective：有效的
Victim：受害者