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52 Symbian phone viruses found

Paul Vecchiatto
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent
Cape Town, 21 Apr 2005

A New Zealand anti-virus firm says it has identified 52 new Trojans for the Symbian cellphone operating system, but a local expert says the threat is minimal.

Anti-virus firm Simworks announced this week that it had identified the Trojans which appear to be cracked versions of popular Symbian applications such as BitStorm, BugMe!, 3D Motoracer and Splash ID. In addition to the installation files for the application, the files include various versions of previously known malicious software such as Cabir and Locknut.

There is growing concern about the possibility of virus infections in the cellular industry due to the increasing adoption of smart phones, which have operating systems that are similar to those on desktop computers. At least one US study says a massive failure in the mobile industry due to a virus attack is only a matter of time.

Leon Perlman, chairman of the Wireless Service Providers Association, says the risk of widespread infection by a cellphone virus is still low.

"An operating system such as Symbian is very tightly written and there are few vulnerabilities that can be exploited, and therefore fewer opportunities for a Trojan to exploit on a massive scale."

Perlman says the number of smart phones in SA is unknown although there is a growing trend for people to use them.

Simworks says the Trojans identified are targeted at Series 60 phones using Symbian OS v6.1, or newer handsets such as the Nokia 3650, 6600 and 6630 models. None of the Trojans affect UIQ (a division of Symbian) based Symbian phones such as the Sony Ericsson P900/910 and Motorola A925/1000.

Perlman says writing a virus or Trojan for the Symbian environment is difficult because of its many versions - some of which are specific to certain phone manufacturers.

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