Phone Virus Poses Worldwide Threat, Vendors Say
A new phone virus dubbed Commwarrior poses a worldwide threat, anti-virus vendors said Tuesday.
The virus is aimed at smartphones based on Nokia's Series 60 platform, which is based on the Symbian OS. According to anti-virus vendor F-Secure, it spreads via multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages and possibly through a vulnerability in Bluetooth capabilities.
F-Secure noted that, while the virus has the potential to spread quickly, it is moving slowly for now. The company also said that initial indications are that the virus originated in Russia.
The virus sends MMS messages without the user's permission, according to F-Secure.
"The situation is not critical since we have not received a lot of reports from our customers," Antti Vihavainen, F-Secure's director for mobile operator solutions, said in a statement.