First of all it was originally called “Cabir” not “Caribe.” But we can play the game of nomenclature while still neglecting a bedazzled public virus outbreak. Yes, the local population is bedazzled - those people who never really cared about a virus entering your PC before are out breaking hell on the new wireless phone virus going around town.

First of all, the Cabir virus isn’t really a virus in the true destructive sense of the word. If we’re talking about the rampant spreading of the Cabir to other handsets,then by all means, we can define it as such. The public outbreak is so intense, its totally amusing. Some local channels did a special coverage on this, and as I suspected, knew little to nothing about the true nature of “KARIBEH” like the DOST knows about computers. You can read the full article here.

First of all, the Cabir only affects Symbian S60 and UIQ phones. This means that all Nokia S60 variants (6600/7650/3650/3660/7610), the Siemens SX1, and SE P800/P900 are prone to this.

Second, the virus spreads via Bluetooth, which makes even more sense why only these S60 phones are infected, because a BT protocol is inherent to the manufacturing of S60.

Third, the “virus” does not do any actual harm to your system. The reason why infected phones experience a battery loss and a slowdown are because the Cabir is trying to beam itself to other BT phones, thus a drain in battery life due to excessive BT use and in effect a slowdown in the processor.

Fourth, you don’t need to spend P1500 pesos to remove Cabir. All you need is a 3rd party File Explorer (the Siemens SX1 has one built in) and you can follow these steps to remove the application. It’s not a virus… at least not yet. It’s a Series 60 application. The Cabir developers wanted to show the world the capabilities of a future worm. So, beware for the future! Besides, you have to be stupid enough to click “accept virus” on your phone.

Safety measures: Turn your bluetooth off when not using. Read m|ph.