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News

Botnets arrive on mobile phones - first worm has been spotted

20 July 2009

A mobile phone worm called Sexy Space has been spotted by Trend Micro and is the first, the IT security vendor says, to spread itself by spamming text (SMS) messages.

The worm - which F-Secure is calling Transmitter - is interesting from a technical viewpoint, Infosecurity notes, as it is reportedly also capable of creating its own botnet.

The worm targets mobile phones and other portable devices running the Symbian S60 operating system.

The Symbian Foundation said that the worm, which first appeared in China, was approved and `signed' by Symbian, the operating system manufacturer owned by Nokia and which approves third party applications for use on the Symbian operating system platform.

According to Trend Micro, the worm-infected phones send text messages to everyone in the phone's contact list with a link to a website.

If someone clicks on the link, they are then reportedly prompted to install Sexy View, which purports to offer adult-related content.

Even more worryingly, Infosecurity notes, Trend Micro researchers claim that Sexy Space is capable of downloading new text message templates from a remote server in order to send out new SMS spam.

If true, this is a first for mobile phone malware and, as such, qualifies it as a potential botnet programme.

Reports from the Far East suggest that the worm is active `in the wild' in China and Saudi Arabia.

 

This article is featured in:
Internet and Network Security • Malware and Hardware Security • Wireless and Mobile Security

 

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