Russian anti-virus firm, Kaspersky Labs, has announced the discovery of the first SMS Trojan virus for devices running Series 60 operating systems – called Trojan-SMS.Symb.OS.Viver. This trojan infection will force your Series 60 phone to send SMS text messages to premium SMS services. These services can charge upwards of $10 per text message, which they split with the mobile operator.

Be weary of seemingly useful software that can be easily downloaded and installed. These types of programs are favorite targets for hiding Trojan viruses. As soon as the installation is completed, the Trojan starts sending SMS text messages to the premium services.

The virus seems contained to Russia for the moment, but there’s a high likelihood that the virus will spread. Keep an eye out – that Series 60 device you have in your pocket is a pretty powerful piece of kit, and just like any computer, you gotta watch your back!

via: unwiredview

The Department of Homeland Security has revealed their research into possibly embedding sensors in mobile phones – allowing the lowly cell phone to become part of a network of anti-terrorism sensors. The research is exploring the use of a network of cell phones, equipped with detectors for nuclear isotopes, toxic chemicals, and biological agents, to roam the streets as a kind of grass-roots anti-terrorism squad. Upon detecting a dangerous substance, the built-in GPS unit will poll location data and transmit the location of the cell phone. A single hit will be dismissed as a false-positive, but multiple hits would indicate a legitimate threat

Since 9/11, the government has spent billions of dollars on placing sensors and detectors in airports, subways, borders, and other terrorist target. The problem with this solution is that sensors in fixed locations can only provide late-stage warnings of impending attacks, rather than averting them. A mobile network of sensors can continuously sample the streets and provide early warning of any terrorist activity.

It’s not yet clear if this technology can even be implemented, but it sure sounds cool (if you can get over that whole “Big Brother” aspect).

via: textually

Iran’s Telecommunications Ministry is set to start “filtering” picture, video, and audio messages, by order of The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. The Council wants the Telecommunications Ministry to acquire whatever equipment they will need in order to start filtering MMS messages for “immoral” content. There is no mention on how this “filtering” will be accomplished.

Iranian state TV reports, ” … in order to prevent possible misuse of MMS, immoral actions and social problems, the Telecommunications Ministry will filter immoral MMS.” Right, wouldn’t expanding and improving your communications infrastructure be a better use of resources? But, then again, immoral MMS sure is a huge threat these days.

via: yahoonews

With cell phone market penetration growing ever larger, the potential for cell phone based scams is greater than ever. “The Real Hustle” team reveals the “Text Message Trap.” Beware of strangers asking you to use your cell phone to send out a quick text message. You may end up with an expensive subscription to a pay-per-text service you never even heard of. Here’s how it works (video after the break):

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Like the headline says, do NOT use the new encryption feature in Windows Mobile 6.0 to secure your storage card’s data.A blog post on the Windows Mobile Team Blog confirms that, while encrypting your data poses no problems, when the device craps out on you so will the storage card.

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Over at ComputerWorld, Jon Espenschied wrote an intriguing piece about smartphone security. The article is inspired with Jon seeing Sen. Barack Obama using his BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), and tries to explain the real threats facing the smartphone users.

At the beginning author introduces smartphones, explaining there is a mobile OS that powers-up these devices, which could be mis-used by software developers. Next, Jon explains the stability issues, threat of the mobile malware, network security and then he demystifies message encryption. Smartphone spying and abuse is also among the subjects author covers. Read the full article »

As the demand for mobile devices is rising constantly the need for a high quality virus protection grows rapidly as well. Therefore BitDefender now offers a full “On-Demand” and “On-Access” security solution which protects smartphones and PDAs from today’s Internet threats.

BitDefender Mobile Security provides permanent antivirus protection for Symbian S60, Symbian Series 80, as well as Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile Pocket PC versions 2002 and higher. It also protects Mobile smartphone versions 2002 and higher.

BitDefender Mobile Security is available immediately for purchase from BitDefender’s site. A 30-day evaluation version is also available for download.

According to McAfee, mobile threats will continue to grow in 2007 as platform convergence continues. The use of smartphone technology has played a pivotal role in the threat’s transition from multifunction, semi-stationary PCs to palm (NSDQ: PALM)-sized “wearable” devices. With increased connectivity through BlueTooth, SMS, instant messaging, email, WiFi, USB, audio, video and Web, there are more possibilities for cross device contamination.

In 2006 we saw efforts by mobile malware authors to achieve PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC infection vectors. Current phone-to-PC vectors remain primitive in nature at this time, such as infecting via removable memory cards. However, McAfee expects that this next stage will be achieved in 2007. Read the full article »

Phone Guardian, a security anti thief and auto lock application, has been released for Symbian S60 3rd edition smartphones. The applications secures the mobile device and all data on it by locking the smartphone on SIM change and on secure SMS. Phone Guardian also provides all possible information to find the thief and get the phone back. Furthermore, it has the auto lock function, that starts automatically and the mobile can be unlocked only with a correct password.

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S60.com has a new blog dealing with mobile security. Hosted by Nokia (NYSE: NOK) security expert, Neil Barclay, Mobile Security blog will be discussing industry news, reviews and help promote user awareness with regards to security on the S60 platform. Both end-users and developers should keep their eyes on Neil’s posts. For a start he explained some of the new security features currently available in Nokia ESeries devices – TARM (Terminal Administration Rights Model).