New data released by an antivirus vendor that specializes in Symbian technology, called SimWorks, suggests that the level of malware aimed at smartphones is higher than previously thought.
The firm announced that it has identified 52 previously unknown Trojans for the Symbian platform. The trojans appear to be cracked versions of popular Symbian applications, such as BitStorm, BugMe!, Cosmic Fighter, 3D Motoracer and SplashID.
A new variant of the Sober email worm (Sober-N) is spreading rapidly across the net, as an
infected ZIP attachment to messages written in German or English, and only infects Windows
machines. More than 86,700 emails containing the new Sober-N were sent to UK businesses since the early hours of Tuesday morning. Most anti-virus vendors rate Sober as a medium-risk worm. Sober-N is the fourteenth incarnation of a worm first seen in October 2003.
Kelvir -- first discovered in February -- originally used MSN Messenger to spread. However, now with around a dozen variants, the malware has evolved to a state where it can use a range of IM applications and collect e-mail addresses without having to infect that user.
Global news and information company Reuters Group Plc (RTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday its privately controlled instant messaging service was back in operation after a temporary shutdown triggered by a computer worm. "We can confirm it's back up and running again," said Reuters spokesman Johnny Weir.
The worm, which targets Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) instant messaging software, was first detected on the Reuters network early on Thursday and the company suspended the service five hours later.
Trend Micro has identified a growing tendency for virus writers to target the enterprise through worms borne by instant messaging services. Although, e-mail remains the dominant method for transmitting viruses, lack of awareness of the vulnerabilities associated with instant messaging (IM) services could make IM worms more damaging.
Trend Micro says the first three months of 2005 saw a rise in the number of worms using IM to propagate. In its first quarter 2005 virus roundup, half of the reported outbreaks were IM worms.
A new mobile virus is spreading by pretending to be a returned message from a friend.
The Mabir.A virus affects Symbian Series 60 phones and is sufficiently similar to the first mobile phone virus Cabir to make some experts think it has the same author. But rather than just relying on Bluetooth to spread Mabir.A uses incoming messages to spread, making it potentially more virulent.
"The MMS spreading function of Mabir.A uses a new social engineering technique," said Jarno Niemela, a researcher at antivirus specialist F-Secure's laboratory.
A worm that first disguised itself as an email from computer vendors now attempts to trick MSN Messenger users into executing malicious files.
The Chod.B worm, which was first discovered on April Fool's day, spreads via email purportedly from Microsoft, or security vendors Symantec and Trend Micro.
When using MSN Messenger as its propagation tool, the virus sends out messages to contacts from the infected user's address book, warning them that they are about to receive a file. The virus then sends a file designed to infect the recipient.
Hackers have released a self-spreading worm, called Ahker-F, that promises pornographic movie clips of the celebrities. The e-mails contain text such as: "Watch Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt cought [sic] on TAPE! SEXY CLIP! WATCH IT!"
However, the e-mails contain a .zip file that contains the worm. If opened, the worm spreads to the users e-mail contacts, disables security settings on PCs and launches a denial-of-service attack against Microsoft's security update Web site.
This month's virus top ten shows that Zafi is still topping the malware chart for the most prolific virus.
Zafi.D, which first appeared in 2004, has now topped the chart for most reported virus for four months in a row, according to antivirus firm Sophos. The Zafi variant made up 45 per cent of all reported viruses during March, with fellow old timer Netsky.P taking second place with 21 per cent of all reports.
A new worm that purports to offer steamy pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie contains a payload targeted at Microsoft.
Ahker-F arrives as an attachment called Clip.zip in emails with the header: 'Watch Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt cought [sic] on TAPE! SEXY CLIP! WATCH IT!'.
Once activated the worm copies itself onto the user's hard drive, attempts to shut down any antivirus software on the computer and tries to spread using email, IRC and P2P systems.
