Symantec warns of Trojans affecting mobile devices

Corporate IT Update, Jan 24, 2006

CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Anti-virus companies have warned that three malicious programs which spread via multimedia messages or Bluetooth, disguised as legitimate applications, are affecting certain mobile phones, including some running on the Symbian operating system.

Information security company Symantec and F-Secure, an anti-virus and anti-intrusion software company, detected the Bootton.E Trojan, which is reportedly the worst of the three. The program restarts the device while releasing corrupted components which leave the device unusable by preventing a successful reboot.

The Pbstealer.D Trojan uses Bluetooth to send the contact list, calendar to-do list and notepad to other nearby Bluetooth users. Malicious programs such as the Pbstealer Trojan are sent to other devices by the third Trojan, the Sendtool.A.

According to Symantec and F-Secure the infection rate is low and the Trojans are not likely to be widely spread in comparison to computer worms, which can spread without users knowing. Business and IT analyst Quocirca said businesses are more relaxed about mobile handheld device security than laptops and advised organisations to establish a policy for securing such devices.

((Comments on this story may be sent to info@m2.com))